I ended up in a verbose mood so you get the full report. 5 hours for a turn and half.
Preturn: Looks like we are making very good progress. Just as a note, I will comment on things I fix. In a game this size there is much that can be missed due to the scope of the game. Almost everything is in very good shape - the MM is probably better than what it will be when I hand the game off actually.
Bugsy,
One thing I noticed is that we had hired taxmen in our capitol and and some other uncorrupt towns. However, in these towns I could put those taxmen to work on ocean squares and get more gold. Be aware of this - you cannot just MM to maximum taxmen or scientists. In uncorrupt towns that have Market/Lib and especially if they have Bank/Uni, you can lower the gold one makes by changing to specialists. In this case I am able to increase or gold a small amount by MMing to work the coast instead. Not that a few gold matters here, but I thought it was something you should be aware of.
I also notice that Berlin is starving, but is on Civil Engineers. This doesn't work, you don't get the shields because of the order things happen (you starve and get reassigned before the shields). You want taxmen or scientists instead. Not sure if the CE were intentional or just left over.
We have a 4 hp Army on the Celts island that I can do nothing about covering. I do move a unit to cover worker stacks on the coast (at least I try to). The AI will bombard a worker stack if it is unprotected. I also protect a Cavalry on the front lines and upgrade a few Muskets->Infantry in front line cities.
IBT: We are attacked in several places. We lose a Worker stack when our Infantry is attacked by Babylon Cav and loses.
Unfortunately, the Celts still have longbows left. It takes several but they kill our Army. I missed a worker stack on the coast and the square is bombarded. Fortunately, we don't lose the improvement we just completed.
We get TOE - Atomic Theory and Electronics. I will start Corporation or Sanitation (edit: I can get Corp in 4 so go for that).
1266 AD:
I don't see a Hoover prebuild, so I put Mauch Chunk on it. It is our fastest city by far, being over double of number 2 - it has a coal plant and lots of hills (and if it had been build one more square to the NW it would have had Iron Works as well - we missed by a square). (This is probably why no prebuild. We would have had to started it more than 10 turns ago to be faster.
Go through and change all the Taxmen to scientists. I do this on the F1 screen itself. In case anyone didn't know, you can change specialists on this screen by clicking them. You can also change production by right clicking what you are producing. I just wish there was a way to rush items from that screen.
I mentioned this before but I think our use of scientists starts too close to our capitol. We have cities that are close enough to be productive that have been put onto science only duty - not a whole lot of cities, but some. I have civ assist II which has the big advantage of telling me what the effect of a courthouse will be before I build it. Otherwise I just have to try to estimate which can be hard. Of course, ones definition of productive can vary. Is 8 shields productive? 10 such cities will build a Cav a turn. If the game last long enough, one can speed up a factory with CE and get that to 16 which definitely is productive (assuming size 12 here - can also increase by going to size 20).
At 80% science we can get Corp in 4 -156 gold
One thing that I want to change is to better control the front. For example in the following screen shot, there are large holes in the front lines where the AI can go and is hard to control. Because of the way I play, this is important for me. I will tend to need to defend many squares with an open front and I will end up running out of defenders. So I much prefer a definite front that I can clearly see the enemy, and where he will attack and keep him confined - this can also be done via pillaging roads. To this end, I use some of our cash to rush some settlers (3 I think). Note that because Bugsy got rid of the Netherlands and the continent is starting to Narrow, controlling the front will be a much easier job than it has been.
I really hate when an Elite unit cannot kill a 1 hp foe. Lose a Healthy E Knight to a red-lined Rifle (on flat too).
I notice we have very little Artillery (only 2). I think Artillery really helps for the invasion of the other continent and bombardment. I will therefor build some more. Also several artillery type units are fortified in odd locations like the NE (including one of our two Artillery). It is better to wake such units rather than leaving them asleep at the end of a players round (My guess is that many probably predate Bugsy's turn. Did he know about them? Not sure). [Edit: Found out we got enough Artillery units that it didn't matter if I found them, except I am going to disband some for the shields. We do not need Catapults and perhaps the Trebs. I will have to see first]
Hmm, I keep spotting other small stacks here and there that are fortified. This includes a big stack of Catapults that I will disband to hurry the settlers I wanted. I will probably use them other places as well. [edit: I did - temples]
We are building a decent number of boats - preparation for an invasion is already well underway. My only change is to increase the number of Galleons vs Frigates. We own 2 frigates for each Galleon and are pretty much only building more frigate. I personally like a set number of frigates and the rest Galleons - so Frigate builds become Galleon builds (and I hope ThERat does too since I suspect I am building them for him for the most part).
I am finally ready to attack something.
Babylon: I take out Larsa to the far West. It was already set up to attack.
England:
England looks like an excellent target since they have only Pikes guarding the cities.
I capture Canterbury with a Cav Army next to it. It blocks access south of a lake and allows us further penetration into Englands core. We can reach Exeter and Cambridge with speed 3 units. I start railing to the city.
I capture Cambridge next with a single attack from a knight army. This gives access to Gloster with speed 3 units (these estimates always assume rails to get to the city (i.e. Cambridge).
Exeter is captured with a Knight Army and two E Cavalry. Newcastle is still 4 away, but it brings Reading within 3 which in turn can bring Richmond within 3.
For NewCastle, there is a MDI Army which attacks and kills a Pike. I will probably just attack again next turn with that army to take the city rather than wasting a 4 moving army on it.
Complete the road to Exeter and can now attack Reading. Two Knight Armies attack Reading and the city falls. Hmm... I discover a problem with my forward movement. There is too big a gap and there is a strip of english lands between the cities. I should have expected that, but wasn't paying close enough attention. So now to look to see if we have settlers - we have 6 which is a goodly number. I place two where I want to build cities as so:
I sell off the buildings and nearly disband, when I realize I forgot one vital component. I go locate 9 workers to put into Exeter before disbanding. I then disband the city. The workers are already on the right squares so I road and RR the square to connect up one of the new towns. I create English Plains, but cannot place the next one - too many cities. So I find a crowded spot in the corrupt areas and disband a city such that no hole will be created in our territory.
I do mess up grabbing a Worker. I needed to do it before exeter was abandoned. I end up leaving a Cav exposed to English counters.
Richmond is now distance 3 so a Cav Army attacks twice and a knight army Once and the city is ours.
Bristol and Manchester are both distance 4. I do have a new attack on Glouster that is also distance 3 but only requires 1 Rail. I build that Rail and attack. Actually after I do it I realize I may build the old path anyway to get an army near new Frankfort, so maybe it wasn't worthwhile, but it is built now so I use it.
I use a Cavalry army for the attack on Glouster. I am guessing 2 defenders based on the other cities I have seen and a Cav Army can attack twice. My guess is correct and the city falls to a single Cav army.
Byzantium is just south of Glouster and within distance 3 so I create a rail to Glouster and attack Byzantium with An Elite Cavalry and a Mounted warrior Army to autoraze the city.
I notice that a Babylon city, Telloh has been brought within distance 3 via Reading which will bring Bristol within 3 of it. Very nice and very bad for England. I use two healthy Cavalry armies to attack 4 times killing 3 Rifles and a Cavalry and Capture Telloh.
I road to Telloh and attack Bristol. I run into the issue that I have run out of healthy armies. Decide this is going to be the last city we will be able to capture. The final attack is a 7 hp knight army vs a 2 hp Pike. We win and capture Bristol.
The final step is to make sure all our units and workers are well defended. It is harder in this position because of the wide open front. I also plant some towns to close the front and fix this. I disband 3 towns to do so (ones that are corrupt and have no redeeming value. I use some bombardment to stop the Babylons from getting some places I don't want them. Note that this is another use of Artillery, the extra range is great for removing another row of roads. If you bomb 2 deep into enemy territory, then a cav moves those two and stops short of your town.
Here is such a picture (from the next turn). I bombarded the squares you see so the Babylon Cav could not penetrate very deeply in the south. In the north, I hold the Hills. The Bab Cavalry went through as shown doing nothing. It will bombarded and destroyed. I hope to line the border with similar ideas, though it may not be necessary if the Babylons fall fast enough.
Some towns I disband some Cats and Trebs to speed a Temple to close our borders vs Babs.
I also start looking into finding towns with no more than 66% corruption with a Courthouse and start setting them up for shields. Several of these towns together could get us a Cav or Tank every other turn.
IBT: I missed one Babylon unit which gets a stack of 6 workers. Our exposed Cav (guarded by another one) does well and each unit holds off its attacker.
1768: We capture Manchester using a Knight Army and a Partially injured Cav army using all 3 attacks.
The MDI Army Captures Newcastle. Note that one of the towns I planted made this city distance 3, but I didn't need that.
Use 2 Cavalry and 1 Knight Army to Capture New Frankfort.
Taegu is now distance 2. I use a Knight army to attack twice and we capture the last English city.
I am going to stop here. I have several more armies to use on the Babylons, but it is late. Or I may go for the small fry - Rome, Germany, first.
To Be Continued...
I doubt I will be able to invade myself - it will take a while to set up. I will make it a priority, because I agree with the principal.
