Help me finish off my game, or, how's about this for a fun scenario

[Buttercup]

I am the Zulus - grey/black

Purple is the Iroquois - been at war with Sumeria most of the game, happy with me but getting a bit worried now that I'm so big and capable of surprise attacks.

Orange is the English - Was at war with Sumeria for a while but is now neutral to all with a dislike for me.

Light blue is Sumeria - Has been at war with everyone most of the game.

Dark blue small island is Inca - at war with everyone, highly backward but no-one can be bothered to invade it though Sumeria would be the most likely to do it.

Sumeria has had the the tech advantage the entire game but I am slightly better than Iroquois and English. Sumeria also has the biggest metropolises, with 4 or 5 in the 30s. My biggest single size is 25 (though reducing as in anarchy).

I have a Mutual Protection Pact with Irquios and Sumeria which I made after they both signed for peace with each other the turn after I conquered Korea. This has about 16 turns remaining. Everyone has a trade embargo against me but I have all the resources (except uranium as I haven't discovered the tech yet) and luxuries so it's a bit meaningless. There are no other agreements on the map.

I am in a state of anarchy as I don't know how best to proceed. My anarchy has about 6 turns left.

My techs are about 4 into modern including Modern Armour and Rocketry but not fission or computers.

I have 2 troops in all towns of which are mainly Infantry and Cavalry and I have access to 11 armies with another nearly being built, 5 of which are tank armies and two of which will be Modern Armour. I also have a stock of approximately 40-60 tanks sitting around getting itchy feet. No artillery, no planes and no mech infantry TOWs or marines but I do have 4 or 5 battleships.

I have no factories or production enhancements but I have about 30 metropolises/cities which have a decent production rate (30 per turn) to counter anyone with 10 core cities with many enhancements.

It's 1898 and there's exactly 126 turns until the end. Bit of a tight squeeze for a Space-Race victory (though maybe possible?) and a culture victory is unlikely.


So the plate is quite clean. Regardless of how I got into this position and regardless of the pros and cons of this position, if you were given this position as a scenario, how best would you proceed to ensure victory condition - either points victory, domination, military, UN or attempt to squeeze in a Space Race? And how would you best go about it?

For those that want to play the scenario here's the save file if it works:

View attachment ZuluImpasse1898.SAV


And yes, there were 16 civs to begin with

Edit: This is on Regent Huge Continent Normal AI Aggression.

 

[bigFRANK]

Quick glance it would appear your next move is to invade the English, The north east corner of their territory looks a prime place with boats carrying tanks coming off your west coast.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

So the plate is quite clean. Regardless of how I got into this position and regardless of the pros and cons of this position, if you were given this position as a scenario, how best would you proceed to ensure victory condition - either points victory, domination, military, UN or attempt to squeeze in a Space Race? And how would you best go about it?

I haven't really scrutinized everything to the small details. But UN victory looks impossible. English are furious, Inca are furious (and a few gifts don't change that). At least the Iroquois are merely annoyed. Still, in an election, I don't see how you would manage to get the majority vote against presumably the Sumerians. [ETA]The Sumerians have the UN. Oh, make sure that there is no real election where Gilgamesh does get a majority against you! Although in the past that does not seem to have been a problem. I don't see why that would change in the future.[/ETA]

But space race and domination look easy. Really easy. Which of those can be achieved faster remains to be shown. But neither should take more than say 40 turns.

For domination pick Monarchy as your government. Turn off research, hire tax collectors, disband all those unnecessary and obsolete units towards state of the art units, sell off any of the many unnecessary improvements -- in short funnel all your resources towards kicking butt. And then just kick butt, I don't see where the problem is. The Internet might help in the same way that the ToA can help with domination victories.

Space race is always easy. You have Synth Fibres already, and Computers, Space Flight, Fission at the very least are out there. You just have to find means and ways to lay hands on them. Looks like your reputation is shot. Hmmm. Still, there should be means and ways. Apart from that, you would pick Republic as goverment, hire plenty of scientists, rack up the science slider to research useful techs, disband large swathes of your military towards ... something useful. Get prebuilds going in due time for the SS-Parts. And so on. Should be a piece of cake.

On the other hand, you could also have a hell lot of fun whacking the AIs and building the Space Ship. Not a problem either.

 

[PaperBeetle]

[warning]Always wait at end of turn[/warning]

 

[Buttercup]

Thanks for all the wonderful answers so far!

Keep em' coming guys!

bigFRANK Quick glance it would appear your next move is to invade the English, The north east corner of their territory looks a prime place with boats carrying tanks coming off your west coast.

I was thinking about this. What's been putting me off is the idea of having all my troops stuck behind enemy lines only for either Iroquois or Sumeria too choose that moment to attack me. Also, weakening the English will, at least temporarily, increase the size of Sumeria and therefore their end-of-game points should I not manage a domination in time.

PaperBeetle [warning]Always wait at end of turn[/warning]

Truer words never more spoken!

Lord Emsworth But space race and domination look easy. Really easy.

I'm tempted to use this scenario to try for both victories. I can assure though that nothing is ever "really easy" on Regent and above on Normal AI aggression but I know what you mean and the two methods you expound for these victories are excellent and also things I've been thinking. My main worry is having all the remaining civs gang up on me if I go war and being surprised attacked by anyone if I go quiet and aim for space. Having watched Sumeria's troops move about the board the whole game I think they are more worrisome than they probably are

 

[CKS]

If you want a diplomatic victory, you need 3 votes right now; this seems unlikely. However, if you eliminate the English and Inca, you only need the Iroquois to vote for you, and if you ally with them against the Sumerians, you can probably win the vote.

For domination, you need a rapid settling program - you can get more than half the tiles you need by settling unoccupied space. Take out the Iroquois and then the English. If you are worried about Sumeria attacking you while you are working on the Iroquois, sign an alliance or let your MPP kick in, but don't give them an ROP, so they can't get at the Iroquois.

20K is impossible, but 100k might be possible if you take out the Sumerians. I may try this, if I get the time.

 

[vmxa]

I think it could be fun to go into a no peace mode. No idea why you would want an embargo against an island civ and since you already have a bad rep I would DoW Hiawatha. Then go on to Gil.

Drop my research, fortify the eastern towns. Pop out a bunch of settlers to fill all the massive holes. Check on all the towns and sell what I do not need. Adjust their food to even numbers.

Run over them. Well that and fix the preferences, no wait at end is a crime. Turn off the animation, other than battles. Turn on color blind to get the nationality shown and a few others.

I would not want ot have towns far from my empire like Tok'chon and Haeju. I would not have held them, unless I expected to have the area around them on the next turn. They tie up too many units to defend or you lose them.

What is with all the boats on this map? You have only two tiny islands and one small island. No need to make boats. Artillery and a few bombers can deal with any AI foolishness. Maybe a crusie missile here and there.

If I get to Modern Age, I have one town make crusie missiles to clean up after artillery as they can get around, while bombers have to be in the right place at the right time.

 

[PaperBeetle]

I'm thinking along the same lines as vmxa; start with knocking out the Quois, who are weak to us, then turn on the Sumerians, who are strong to us. Mainly I want to do that order just so I can get a feel for how this game is playing. It's always disorientating to enter a game mid-way like this, especially one played thus far quite differently from the CivFanatics 'house style'. Technically, I think it is best to attack Sumeria straight away. They have UN, and whatever happened to votes in the past, that's always a Sword of Damocles threatening instant defeat. And the best counter to that threat is to start a dogpile on them and go take control of the UN.

Anyway, here's my prep for the Quois campaign...

Spoiler :

1898ad:

Workers...
Clean all the pollutions and start getting rid of the forests.

Towns...
Switch most serious builds to artillery or armour (if art would over-run much). No need for more ships on a pangaea. Switch towns with big foreign populations to slave production. There's lots of improvement to be done.
Sell banks and stocks in cities that will probably be corrupt once we are out of anarchy. Sell barracks wherever possible, as we have Sun Tzu anyway. Sell temples in small towns that aren't at all likely to get big. That earns me 835g. Might sell the libs and unis in a while too. They aren't costing anything while in anarchy though, so it's not crucial yet.

Ships...
Cover the privateer so no one zooms over and sinks it. In general, bunch the ships up and move them towards my first target, the Quois. No point spreading them out so that AI can pick them off one by one. If the AI want to try shelling my coastlines, then fine, I'll build bombers and see them off.

Troops...
We have Leonardo, so let's spend some money on upgrades. 1 reg impi becomes an inf. 5 vet maces become TOWs. 1 elite* tank to armour. 66 vet tanks to armour! This is sufficient to kill the Quois in one turn isn't it? Okay maybe not; they do have tows, and lots of towns on this huge map. 3 vet knights to cavs. 1 musket to inf. 6 vet rifles to infs. 1 captured cannon to art. Still weak to Sumeria. That's scary. We have an army with a single armour in it; fill it with cavs. Armour are practically armies in themsleves; cavs benefit more from the agglomeration.
Now consolidate the troops so we can think more clearly about what we've got. All elites (43 of them) go to Zimbabwe, so we know where to find them when we have a nice easy kill to fish on. That leaves 54 cavs, 78 infantry and a couple of companions. Put a single inf in each Sumerian border city, just so their fast movers don't get diistracted by any free town grabs. Use the remaining infantry to blockade the Quois border so he can't use our ROP.

Ready to end turn and see if there's any surprises waiting for me.
I'll dow Watha next turn. Theoretically, we should abuse the ROP and I'd expect to get more than half way to annihiliting him in one turn. But I went cold turkey on ROP abuse a year or two back, so I'll be going in the slow way.

 

[vmxa]

"

View attachment 305083

My techs are about 4 into modern including Modern Armour and Rocketry but not fission or computers.

I have no factories or production enhancements but I have about 30 metropolises/cities which have a decent production rate (30 per turn) to counter anyone with 10 core cities with many enhancements.

How you got here we have gone over a few times, but some things you may not have heard others you have. I picked these two statements as they say something important.

The techs, I feel you must go for Computers first, unless the UN is a danger. If you had mechs, the AI would ne easier to manage. You also could use Seti at least to deny it to them.

A 20 shield metro is not as as good as a 40 shield city. You can double your shields in the top towns with a factory and a plant of some flavor. Thus that 25 shield net metro could have been making 2 turn tanks long ago, rather than 4 turn tanks.

Another cost of Sanitation (research time is the biggest) is that you are now trying to get max food, rather than max shields. This does not matter at Regent, but could in an end game like this, where you could end up in a war of the worlds.

I do not know, if you do not know this, but a rail on a forest is a big waste. You now have a grass tile making 2 shields and 1 food. If you had cut the trees instead, you would get the same thing, except the food would be two. You also could have saved turns on the rail time and gotten the 10 shields.

This is why I try to cut trees when Steam is coming soon. You may even find that it was a BG tile and have more shields.

You have workers sleeping with pollution starving metros and much work to be done?

There is no need to keep making ships on a pan map and this one probably never needed ships after the search boats.

Unless you are in Republic or Demo why make courts all over the place and here you are at end game making courts in tiny towns.

Way too many temples and more going up all over the place. This comes from the max spacing. Another cost of Sanitation, why not go to closer spacing after the core? You would get specialist up sooner in a town or a city than a metro farther from the capitol.

If rails on forest is not a good plan, jungle rails are even worse. Cut the jungle, rail only to get to a specific location, not all over all jungles. You had a crew cutting jungle while metros are starving.

The ToA and MoM are not required, if you are not having an easy time or going for 100k.

You know all optional tech to this point? Even if you traded or stole them, that has a cost. They are optional, pick only the ones you really can use. Ampib on this map is superfluous.

Concentrate on getting settlers out to file holes and workers to get the land productive and take out Iroq first.

 

[vmxa]

I forgot a huge item. You need to have Mass transits in those metros or you will not be able to keep up with the strarving caused by pollution.

 

[PaperBeetle]

^ Actually, seeing as they don't have factories, I'm finding it's quite manageable! Got two pollutions on my first i.t. and none on my second.

 

[vmxa]

I got 3 on the first full turn and there are not enough workers to clear them all. Many starving metros due to anarchy and pollution. Aggrevated by tiles with forest. Look at those metros and you see a massive number of barrels of pollution, meaning you will get tiles polluted.

Mass trans would drop this to one barrel per metro in most places. Metros require a mass trans plain and simple, otherwise you are going to get pollution. Had you also had factories in a few of the better ones, it would have added more pollution chances.

 

[Buttercup]

Some more excellent ideas coming forward here. My original plan was indeed to dominate the left-side of the continent (way back in 1000AD). However, repeated surprise attacks from, firstly, Japan, then Sumeria, then England (all from the right-side of the continent) forced me to befriend my fellow left-siders on each occasion when I was about to go after that goal. This is what caused the middle to get squished so badly, and why I am so late to taking on both Korea and Iroquois. It's like the AI knows (cough cough) that I'm preparing an assault on a neighbour

Re: Workers. I have several clumps of workers fortified in groups of 8 or more - they are clearing the pollution, lol. I leave one on skip turn and fortify the rest because, as PaperBeetle has realised, It will be unlikely I go a round with more than 3 or 4 bits of pollution and the clumps equal a clear-up in one turn (except on trees etc).

Workers are an aspect of the game I'm not traditional with. I use the minimum number possible and am more interested in establishing attack routes and maxing the primary towns than making sure every city has the optimum surroundings. If you wonder what some of my workers a are doing then it's probably just to get them out of my site and give them something to do to prevent me from getting bored of them and disbanding them. LOL.

Re: Trees. This a habit left over from civ2 plus a matter of personal taste. In civ2 (if I remember correctly) deforestation led to global warming (which was a serious bummer in civ2, which it isn't in civ3 & for civ3 deforestation doesn't seem to effect global warming at all). Also, they make for great defensive barriers against fast enemy units in the early game. In the late game (I don't regularly get to the Modern era) I'm only really interested in production. The extra food and therefore cash created is nice, but it's relatively not a huge amount worth panicking over at this stage IMO. I also like the way they can be used to halt population while not effecting production in areas where there's no hills - I sometimes find it more bearable to have static population that you know wont rebel if you fail to remember to sort it when it says 1 turn to growth. A 1 turn delay to production is something I find really irritating. I also like looking at maps with a huge variety, getting a sense of role-play that I'm in a real world rather than a game-only map - this is entirely aesthetic - I really do get a sense of guilt every time I cut a forest or Jungle down (especially as the workers cannot plant a jungle in a dead space).



I actually really excited by the idea of some of you guys trying out some scenarios before I have a crack at it. I'm one of those people who gets just as much gaming fun watching someone else game as I do playing myself. I'm also fascinated to see which game-win options are impossible from this position. Thanks guys, can't wait to see how it all progresses & keep 'em coming!


edit: Before you all rush to the obvious, by disbanding workers, I do, of course, mean joining them to cities

 

[vmxa]

Like many games there are some keys to make it easier to get ahead and win. Workers are that key in Civ3. Idle workers is counterproductive. Insufficient workers is like an anchor in the water during a boat race. It is the primary reason you have not already won this game. I point these things out in case you wanted to improve.

If you only want to play as you are and that is fun for you then no reason for us to comment. It is prefectly valid to play like this, which is basically the way the AI plays.

Global warm should never happen in Regent. It comes from letting the AI get too big and make hopitals and nukes and factories. I just finished a 180x180 AWM with 24 civs, I did not make any hospitals or learn Sanitation. I had only two instances of pollution and that was from factories.

The AI got Sanitation and polluted their tiles. They did not get nukes (I did not build the Project). No global warming in the game and it was a conquest.

The one thing I do not understand is why the revolt so late in the game? You have enough lux to play AW at this level while being in Republic. Unless you had never revolted there is no upside to a revolt at this late date.

6 turns of anarchy here is too expensive. BTW drop a settler next to Gils colony of iron. No reason to let him keep it.

 

[creamcheese]

Workers are an aspect of the game I'm not traditional with. I use the minimum number possible and am more interested in establishing attack routes and maxing the primary towns than making sure every city has the optimum surroundings. If you wonder what some of my workers a are doing then it's probably just to get them out of my site and give them something to do to prevent me from getting bored of them and disbanding them. LOL.

Re: Trees. This a habit left over from civ2 plus a matter of personal taste. In civ2 (if I remember correctly) deforestation led to global warming (which was a serious bummer in civ2, which it isn't in civ3 & for civ3 deforestation doesn't seem to effect global warming at all). Also, they make for great defensive barriers against fast enemy units in the early game. In the late game (I don't regularly get to the Modern era) I'm only really interested in production. The extra food and therefore cash created is nice, but it's relatively not a huge amount worth panicking over at this stage IMO. I also like the way they can be used to halt population while not effecting production in areas where there's no hills - I sometimes find it more bearable to have static population that you know wont rebel if you fail to remember to sort it when it says 1 turn to growth. A 1 turn delay to production is something I find really irritating. I also like looking at maps with a huge variety, getting a sense of role-play that I'm in a real world rather than a game-only map - this is entirely aesthetic - I really do get a sense of guilt every time I cut a forest or Jungle down (especially as the workers cannot plant a jungle in a dead space).

You say you are concerned only with production but don't use workers or have factories and power plants? Factories and power plants double your production right off the bat, better optimized land improvements might make even more... Even if you don't like using workers, building factories earlier would have won you the game probably.

 

[PaperBeetle]

I also like the way they can be used to halt population while not effecting production in areas where there's no hills - I sometimes find it more bearable to have static population that you know wont rebel if you fail to remember to sort it when it says 1 turn to growth. A 1 turn delay to production is something I find really irritating.

For my money the best way to limit pointless pop growth is to not build hospitals.
And the best way to avoid riots after growth is to have CivAssist2 or Mapstat running. Cities don't riot on the turn the new citizen is born, but the turn after, so you have already had a chance to fix the problem. The utility programs will notify you that you have a town about to riot.

The one thing I do not understand is why the revolt so late in the game? You have enough lux to play AW at this level while being in Republic. Unless you had never revolted there is no upside to a revolt at this late date.
6 turns of anarchy here is too expensive.

I've got to second this opinion. It's still one of the arguments that comes up most often in the forums, people say they revolt to Communism and Democracy and all sorts. And you look at the empire here, not just out of action for 6 turns, but actually going backwards.. why are we still debating this?

BTW drop a settler next to Gils colony of iron. No reason to let him keep it.

This isn't really worthy of special consideration though is it? He's got two sources of iron in his territory plus an iron colony in Japan, what do I care if he has a fourth source?

 

[Buttercup]

Wow, look how you all jump on the smallest gun to try and turn a winning game into a massive calamity because you need to express the fact that you play better as loudly as you can

Get a load of this tripe from vmxa:

Idle workers is counterproductive. Insufficient workers is like an anchor in the water during a boat race. It is the primary reason you have not already won this game. I point these things out in case you wanted to improve.

There is nothing wrong with the state of my workers. So a couple of trees haven't been cut down WHOOP-DO-F'ING-DO Have you got any other jobs they could do apart from chop 8 squares of trees down?

The primary reason I haven't won it, bright spark, if you'd bothered to read, is because the AI kept attacking me, do you need me to write that in capitals?

You point these things out because you're the kind of person who likes to point things out... I could point out all your garbage until I'm blue in the face, but then you'd just say you can point out garbage better because you don't need to use caps to state your case...

I lost interest in your contributions when you wrote:

I got 3 [pollution squares] on the first full turn and there are not enough workers to clear them all.

As this is just a blatant lie. Anyone is free to look at the game and know this to be a lie. I believe you are posting deliberately over-the-top nonsense. Feel free to spam my thread mountain out of a molehill bating material, this shall be my last contribution in your direction.

PaperBeetle, please don't encourage him...

I've got to second this opinion. It's still one of the arguments that comes up most often in the forums, people say they revolt to Communism and Democracy and all sorts. And you look at the empire here, not just out of action for 6 turns, but actually going backwards.. why are we still debating this?

This is pure opinion. Again, feel free to spam the thread with opinions written as fact, but it's only going sour otherwise great posts. The most obvious reason to go into anarchy is because you're fighting a war you're winning but are about to go to maximum War Weariness. If you know you can finish the other civ off with the troops you have but need more time then it's OBVIOUS that anarchy would be an awesome OPTION to have. As one small example among many. I really don't appreciate the over-stating of little things to diminish the whole. There's advice and then there's criticism and then there's just plain gittishness. As I said in the Opening Post, this thread was not supposed to be about the past, but rather the future - if you honestly think I know nothing about civ you really think I'd even get to that stage of the game? REALLY?

creamcheese:

You say you are concerned only with production but don't use workers or have factories and power plants? Factories and power plants double your production right off the bat, better optimized land improvements might make even more... Even if you don't like using workers, building factories earlier would have won you the game probably.

I have no idea why you think I don't use workers. That's the most ******ed comment I've ever seen. You mean why don't I have 2 per city? Er... maybe because one worker equals one unit? How exactly is one supposed to invade one's rivals for free if half our allocated units are workers and the other half are keeping the city from rebelling? You mean you pay for units? Doesn't that destroy the whole point of making your nice new road in a corrupt city? Maybe that's why you need so many workers, to pay for your armies that your workers are clogging up the free spaces of?

Why don't you build 10 archers instead of 10 workers and go take a couple of towns, get 4 free workers, two already roaded towns and the capacity to build a bigger free army to take out 2 more towns?

And as for factories winning towns, LOL, that's so funny. The amount of free units you have is a set limit, the amount of cash you have left after keeping decent tech pace is a set limit, if one has reached this limit without factories, what exactly, may I ask, is the point of factories? To replace the ones that die quicker? That's funny because sometimes it's nice for some troops to die back for a few turns, gives you a bit of free profit...

And as some other 'argue you right round the houses and back to where you started' guy stated, once you've built your factory you still have to build Mass Transit, that's all cost which means less military units, and that's all time taken when you could be building military units - how about 'you could have won the game already if you just stopped building pointless buildings and made some military units to go get the job done'?

I bet there's a few who would have said that exact thing had I shown a screen full of building works...


Anyway guys, as I keep saying, this is a bit of fun, this is about what to do from here on in. Feel free to sermonise/lecture/bait/whatever about the usual same old same old topics, but I shan't be referencing anymore posts that don't deal with the specific funness of the where to go with the current scenario. Not that my contributions are worth anything of course...

 

[vmxa]

This isn't really worthy of special consideration though is it? He's got two sources of iron in his territory plus an iron colony in Japan, what do I care if he has a fourth source?

It is just an aside. It is not to add to your empire, but just to spite them. I did not look, but for all I know it is all the iron Gil has and I want to take the space. Well I want to take all the space.

BTW it also gets him to send that MI home and farther from your lands (presuming your are stronger and he does not want war).

 

[PaperBeetle]

Okay, so I hit end turn in 1898ad.

Spoiler :

One Quois infantryman makes a break across an unroaded in forest no-man's land forest. No idea why, but he's not important.
A couple of pollutions pop up.

1900ad:
Clean the pollutions. 2 chops at Antium finishes an artillery. Chop at Umtata just to reduce the food deficit. Found Umfolozi to secure the silks, which are currently claimed only by a colony.

Dow the Quois. Sink a destroyer, lose a destroyer to a frigate. 3 arts bomb the stray infantry for 1hp damage.
Let's bring the armour out to play. The most accessible town is Skannayutenate; on a hill and defended by a tow, but only size 6, and only 1 tile from the border; vet armour attacks and retreats, revealing an infantryman, vet armour kills infantry, vet armour flawlessly kills infantry, blitzes and is defeated flawlessly. I don't want the tow there to gain a hp by winning again, so kill it with a tank army; town captured. Start slave, sell barracks.
Now Neodakheat is within attack range. Vet armour kills vet inf, vet armour kills vet inf flawlessly and promotes, vet armour kills reg inf, revealing an unfortified reg inf. Gamble that this is the last unit in the town and kill it by bitzing with the elite. Town captured. Start slave.
Border town Oiogouen, previously screened by mountains, is now reachable. vet armour kills vet inf, vet armour kills vet inf, redlined but promotes. Vet armour kills vet inf and takes the town. Sell barracks, start slave, and all citizens to taxmen as it can't help but starve anyway. 2 artillery were captured; send them to bomb the Quois tank next to Skannay. They redline it, so finish the job with an elite knight.
Next available town is size 4 Oka. Vet armour flawlessly kills vet inf, vet armour killed by vet inf, vet armour retreats from reg inf, vet armour flawlessly kills reg inf. Feel like a gamble, so finish the last vet inf with an elite cav; lose 1hp and takes the town. Sell barracks and start slave. Artillery captured; go shell that stray inf for 1hp.
The last accessible town is Tyendenaga... vet armour kills vet inf, vet armour flawlessly kills vet inf, aet armour kills reg inf to take the town. Start slave. Artillery captured; shell the tank stood next to the town for 2hp. Kill the tank with an elite companion cavalry, harharhar. He's redlined mind, but that's still a good kill.
Now we have a route to Oil Springs, though fighting across a river... vet armour flawlessly kills vet inf, vet armour retreats from vet inf, vet armour kills vet inf. Reg spear next up! Elite cav loses 2hp killing spear to take the town. Sell barracks, bank, stock and factory, start slave. Frustratingly, it is a cultural exclave, due to the positioning of Ganogeh and Owego. Abandon the town (forgetting to sell the market).
Vet armour kills stray tank; promote.
Send 4-move armies against Kente which is otherwise unreachable; kill 2 vet infs and a tank, but there is still a reg inf in there, and I am out of 4-movers.
It's the end of the advance, so consolidate. Cover stranded units with armies, and stock up the border towns with infantries. I have 9 border towns, plus 4 in the northeast which can be reached by a long train journey through no-man's land; use cavs to pillage the route to the extra 4 towns, and stock each of the 9 border towns with 8 infantry and a couple of cavs. Move the last army (a tanker) up next to Kiohero on the west coast, and put 8 armour underneath it. Put 24 armours underneath the army in range of Ganogeh; it's a metro, so will take a lot of cracking, but it's also the key that should open up most of the eastern side of Quoia to attack. Put two armour underneath the armies outside Kente, just so I shouldn't have to waste any army attacks taking the town. This leaves 15 armour and my cav stack - well, it's always nice to have something in reserve.

Ready to end the turn again.

 

[Buttercup]

Ah, now I know the Iroquois had tanks a few turn ago and if you haven't killed any yet then there's gotta be some coming out the woodwork in the next turn. I'm not sure about going for them without the ease of Modern Armour available en-mass in 20 turns time, I'm looking forward to the results as this one really is a genuine risk!