Iron and Blood - Game Thread

[CELTICEMPIRE]

I was about to get pwned by Medina, and then the game ended, how convenient.

 

[GamezRule]

You really didn't have the EP for it.

 

[kiwitt]

I wonder what would have happened if BSmith1068 and GamezRule were on opposing alliances.

 

[mechaerik]

You really didn't have the EP for it.

I was planning on investing more, plus my target was California, which didn't really have that high of an EP count. I was only going to try and flip one city, not an entire province.

 

[GamezRule]

I wonder what would have happened if BSmith1068 and GamezRule were on opposing alliances.

Very bad beans.

 

[GamezRule]

Declassified Social Groups

Main Military Alliances:

United Nations of Amerosia
Alliance of Three Kingdoms (kittens welcome)
L'accord de la Grande
Le Grande Entente
The Illuminati

Unholy Alliances:

Downfall​

 

[BSmith1068]

Wow. To be honest I didn’t expect the Congress to fold so easily. You guys still had twice the IC as us and capacity for more armies than we had, and could have still won this war. This whole war was quite tenuous for us, and Gamez and I spend hours on chat strategizing and trying to work out the problem that was the entire world against us.

I knew that if we could get you out of Africa, and solidify Europe we would be in a good position, but that we also needed to get the war on your home instead of ours. My goals for the first turn were to secure North Africa, but to also have a Hail Mary surprise that could put you off balance. It almost worked as well. N. Africa was pretty cleared, but the surprise attack on Australia was foiled by a super close naval battle in the Indian Ocean. Had that battle gone the other way, ATKs invasion of my non-defended Southern African lands would not have happened, and I would have likely held all of Australia.

The second turn of the war had me cleaning up N. Africa, and attempting to get back my continental holdings in S. Africa, but also helping France hold their position and re-take Iberia. We had another surprise for the UNA there too, and even won the naval battle, but it was deemed too close to allow our invasion of New England (even though it was not as close as the Indian Ocean battle the turn before, yet the UNA invasion went through ) so most of my N. African armies were under-utilized.

Espionage was of course a critical tool for us to use to take down the ATK (come on, really? you stab us in the back and have ZERO EP?). And given the fact that we were out numbered by about 3:1 in IC and more than 2:1 in potential armies, we were certainly going to use all possible avenues to win this war. EP also was what allowed us to open land attacks without having to use our navies (even though we tried those as well).

This next turn would have had me and Medina helping to liberate Ethiopia and my S. African continental holdings, hold the ground in Asia, and launch a massive attack in Colombia to finally get a front on the American side of the war.

Bottom line it was all about being selective in how we defended, because we knew we couldn’t defend everything, combined with a mix of offensive gambits that would pay off huge if they were successful.

I also really liked my deal with Tawantinsuyo to sell off my lands in S. America one turn at a time for 100IC each. That gave me a nice IC cushion that helped to mitigate some of the IC loss to territories being taken over.

As for roll-playing, I ran out of time last week to post, but I was going to have the King die of old age, then have his son take over as King Mswati III. This next turn (assuming the war was still going well) he was going to become Emperor Mswati of the Empire of Swaziland. This was basically to make everyone’s fears come true about us because no one was interested in our very serious proposals to avoid war in the first place.

Some questions I have for the ATK and UNA players:

- Why did you not settle for peace, especially when we were offering to give up so much for basically nothing?
- Why did you keep building navies when you had multiple land access points to both of our territories?
- Did anyone send troops against a territory that we secretly gifted to a non-combatant?


Also – here are my orders for the past two turns:

Spoiler Update 21 :

Kingdom of Swaziland Orders for Update 21


Income: 738 +10 (sale of factories in South Africa)

- 91 – Supplies
- 32 – Submarines
- 84 – 42 Armies
- 64 – 16 Navies
- 477 (Remainder) – Additional supplies for troops and navies

Domestic Issues:

- Sell 10 Factories in South Africa for 10 IC
- Make the following territories cores:
o Nigeria
o Chad
o Sudan

Divestiture of Territories to Third Parties:

- Sell Brazil to Tawantinsuyo for 81 IC
- Transfer ownership of Swazi controlled portions of Gabon to Ethiopia
- Transfer ownership of the following territories to Medina:
o Ukraine
o Livonia
o Swazi held Poland

Espionage Orders:

- Active Mission 1: Destabilize Xi’an
- Active Mission 2: Destabilize Southern Han
- Active Mission 3: Turn Western-most City in Shanghai to Swazi Control

Military Orders:
Total Forces: 133 Armies; 25 Navies

South America

Spoiler :

Forces: 15 Armies

- Station 15 Armies in La Plata.
o Phase 1: Defend against any and all attacks on the province, especially from Chile
o Phase 2: Counterattack/Attack into Chile with all remaining Armies along several access points (as indicated in above map) Goal is to completely capture the territory.

North Africa

Spoiler :

Forces: 93 Armies

Deployments:
- Maghreb: 25 Armies
- Sahel: 23 Armies
- Chad: 10 Armies
- Sudan: 10 Armies
- Nigeria: 20 Armies
- Cameroon: 5 Armies

Phase 1 Orders:
- All Armies in all provinces defend from attack. Stand ground at all costs and cause maximum damage to enemy armies.

Phase 2 Orders:
- Libya Counter Assault
o All Remaining Armies in Maghreb and Sudan counter-attack Libya on two fronts. Goal is to capture the entire province and eliminate Libya as an independent nation.
- Guinea Counter Assault
o All remaining armies in Sahel counter-attack enemy forces in Guinea. Goal is to capture entire enemy holdings in the province.
- Cameroon/Gabon Counter Assault
o All remaining armies in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad counter-attack enemy forces in Cameroon. Upon successful completion of this objective, move into enemy held Gabon and eliminate all forces present. Goal is to capture entirety of enemy held Cameroon and Gabon.

Southern Africa and Indian Ocean

Spoiler :

Forces: 25 Armies, 25 Navies

Deployments:
- South Africa: 20 Armies
- Mozambique: 5 Armies
- Indian Ocean: 25 Navies

Naval Orders:
- All 25 Navies are to defend the Indian Ocean from enemy attack. Seek and destroy all enemy vessels in the Indian Ocean.

Phase 1 Orders:
- All troops in South Africa and Mozambique defend the provinces from enemy attack.

Phase 2 Orders (contingent):
- All surviving troops in South Africa and Mozambique board military transports and conduct and amphibious assault of the territory of Australia from the Indian Ocean. Primary objective is to capture the entire territory and capture Australian political leaders as prisoners of war. This action is contingent upon a successful clearing of the Indian Ocean by the Royal Swazi Navy.
- If the Navy is not successful in clearing the Indian Ocean, all troops counter-attack any enemy held territory in Southern Africa, or just stand down if no further action is necessary.

Spoiler Update 22 :

Kingdom of Swaziland Orders for Update 22

Income: 747 (576 + 81 + 70 for Chile Factories + 10 for Libya Factories + 10 IC from Event)

- (60) Supplies
- (240) 120 Armies
- (80) Espionage Points
- (20) 10 Factories in Guinea
- (95) Oversupply for Navies
- (252) Oversupply for Armies

Events:

- Industrious Citizens: Option 5, +50% chance stability Increase
- The Man of Property: Option 1, +10 IC

Domestic Issues:

- Sell all Chile Factories (+70 IC)
- Sell 10 Libya Factories (+10 IC)
- Make the following Territories Cores:
o Libya
o Cameroon
o Guinea
- Transfer remaining territory in Gabon to Ethiopia

Espionage Orders:

- Active Mission 1: New Zeland: Turn as many cities as possible to Swazi control.
- Active Mission 2: Guiana: Turn as many cities as possible to Swazi control.
- Active Mission 3: Tibet: Turn as many cities as possible to Swazi control.

Military Orders:

Total Forces: 243 Armies; 19 Navies

Please note maps for detailed attack routes and movement plans for each theatre.

Southern Africa

Spoiler for map :

Forces: 85 Armies Deployed in South Africa

- Phase 1: Defend South Africa at all costs from any attack
- Phase 2: After defending, all surviving forces invade and re-capture Angola. All surviving forces then invade Zambia, then Mozambique. Goal is to re-capture all mainland African territories from enemy forces. Elements from the Ethiopian army may assist with these battles, but all land is to be returned to Swazi control

North Africa and Europe

Spoiler for map :

Forces: 44 Armies each in Sahel and Maghreb; 40 Armies in France; 19 Navies in North Atlantic

- Naval Phase: Defend and hold North Atlantic from enemy ships. Seek and destroy all enemy vessels.
- Phase 1: Defend Sahel, Maghreb and France from attack.
- Phase 2: All forces in Sahel and Maghreb attack remaining enemy positions in North Africa. Once this land has been re-taken, all surviving forces are to board transports and invade Spain from the North Atlantic. Concurrently, all surviving forces in France are to invade Spain from the north in conjunction with French forces (and orders). Once Spain is secured, all surviving forces are to invade Portugal. All territory taken in Spain and Portugal are to be reverted to French control immediately.
- Phase 3: See North America section below.

Asia

Spoiler for map :

Forces: 30 Armies in Shanghai

- Phase 1: All forces immediately attack enemy positions in Sichuan and capture entire territory. Once Sichuan is secured, all surviving forces move into Burma and secure it as well. Surviving forces then invade Bengal and secure all territory.

North America

Spoiler for map :

Forces: Surviving Swazi and French Armies in Portugal; Surviving Swazi and French Navies in North Atlantic

- Naval Phase: All surviving navies in the North Atlantic but one (left for escort duty) move into the Eastern Seaboard and remove all enemy ships. All French navies (less 5 to North Sea and 1 to Med per French Orders) accompany the Swazi Navy in this phase.
- Phase 1: All surviving forces (French and Swazi) in Portugal board transports and invade New England with full naval support. Surviving armies then move into Great Lakes, and then Mid-West securing all territory along the way.

 

[choxorn]

Go find Teckno and Joe and see if you can't get them to declassify their social groups.

Just to tell you all, the UNA never planned on conquering the world. At first, at least. We joined up with the ATK to kill you two because we correctly figured that you were going to conquer the world and kill everyone, and wanted to come up with a way to stop you. And yes, Gamez was completely right that we were going to backstab the ATK after we beat the Grande Entente, but that was mainly because we figured they'd probably become every bit as huge as France and Swaziland, and didn't find them to be particularly trustworthy. (Speaking of which, I award the "Master of Disguise" achievement to Double A for having 320 EP at one point and backstabbing one alliance, then backstabbing the other alliance in a plan to conspire with the first alliance. ) We probably would have just sat around in the Americas and done nothing for a while if France, Saoirse, and Swaziland hadn't gotten so enormous.

 

[Joecoolyo]

- Did anyone send troops against a territory that we secretly gifted to a non-combatant?

YES

You ruined my entire plan the first turn we were at war. I was going to steamroll French Siberia with my 122 armies, make it Russia, defend the attack, and then if I still had armies left, conquer Swazi Eastern Europe. But you traded the territories away and ruined everything. Which, IMO, was kinda gamey of you. Especially since there are no revolts in this version.

Anyhoo, closing thoughts.

My goals and actions in this game took a waaaaaay different turn then I thought they would. Originally, I planned to plan the Grand Kingdom as a nation with a couple provinces, but one that was an economic beast. Which is why on the first couple turns I kept insisting on gaining a port to trade with, as I would have traded coal reserves in my country for IC. Also, I planned on something similar to what happened in Russia, having a revolution take charge and then going on a massive conquest. But, everything changed once the Japanese started expanding at just a bit too fast of a rate. I formed the ATK with Siam and Southern Han only as a temporary alliance to stop imperial aggression, afterwards we would disband and I would probably back-stab and conquer mainland China for myself, with the peasant's revolution, or not.

Buuuut, it turned out we as a team worked pretty damn well together. So we stuck with each other, in our little alliance, while everyone else in the world was scrambling to the two giant alliance, the Accord and the UNA. I think part of our success as an alliance was the fact that we kept it to three members, we knew we worked well together, and there was no chance any of us were going to back stab one another, since we knew out survival was tied to this alliance, and we had similar visions, unlike something that might happen in a bigger, bloated alliance.

And so we plotted and planned, we took over India to make sure our hegemony in Asia was uncontested. Boj China came out of nowhere, but we took care of it in a similar fashion. And so by the turn of the century, we had grown the ATK from this backwater alliance against a small imperial foe into on of the three global powers, along with the Accord and the UNA. I believe that is our grandest achievement in this game, the fact that we had a say in global politics equal to that of the massive alliances, due to our sheer economic and military prowess. And it was just the three of us, no one else joined our alliance, and no one else left our alliance. We stuck together the entire game and launched ourselves into being a great power.

So obviously to win this game, we needed some way to increase our power greatly, without greatly increasing the power of either of the alliances, or we would be outgunned and economically smaller due to the factory limits. So instead of sticking with the Accord, who at this time were massively powerful, and had over twice the IC of the next largest nation, we decided it was they who needed to be taken down. That way, we would gobble up their territory, increasing our power, give a couple territories to each participant from the UNA, and industrialize. Eventually, the war to end all wars would happen between us and the UNA, and by then, we would have created a separate alliance of all the states in Eurasia, either through economic incentives or through intimidation, and conquer the UNA. At that point, we would be supreme rulers over the entire world, and our might unchallenged.

Of course, one aspect of the game was overlooked (ugh, espionage), and our plans were ruined during the Accord war (that combined with gamey moves like swapping territories to a neutral power so that they couldn't be attacked). But anyways, in the end, I still think we did a damn good job raising ourselves to the world stage, where we could compete with the two massive alliances, even though we ourselves were so tiny. Props to everyone for a damn fun game, and I personally can't wait for the second iteration

Also, I'm debating whether or not to declassify. Should I?

 

[Red_Spy]

You should declassify.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Yeah, I guess I'll declassify since everyone already knows

Here's a link the Kitten Lovers of CFC, the secret ATK group.

And here's a link to Downfall, the Congress group.

Both should be public now.

 

[Sonereal]

Bsmith, as a guy who personally remembers everyone of your orders from Red Alert, I'm not at all surprised that your orders for this game were far above average.

 

[BSmith1068]

@ Joe: The funny thing about that exercise we went through in trying to avoid war by divesting tons of territory was that it forced us to think about what we really wanted, territory wise.

While Medina has said he was on the fence about which side to choose, he was quite friendly with us through the whole affair, and we planned with him ways to keep control of the lands we could do without out of enemy hands. While it might have been gamy to transfer the land, we would have otherwise stripped the land of all factories and left them wastes that were really no good to anyone. The transfer kept the land away from you and in somewhat friendly hands, but at the same time reduced our liability for attack.

Seeing as you had more than twice the possible armies to use against us, and three times the IC, we needed to do everything we could to distract and diffuse your attacks.

I’m glad that tactic worked and left your 122 armies moot.

Bsmith, as a guy who personally remembers everyone of your orders from Red Alert, I'm not at all surprised that your orders for this game were far above average.

Thanks! I enjoy thinking through the orders and also trying to make them as clear as possible for the GM – that way I am more likely to get what I want! EDIT: and I am touched that you remember my orders that well!

 

[GamezRule]

In case you remember, I really wanted to take out the ATK during the Afghanistan debacle, but settled for Britain. We had the NAP at the time to make things go smoothly.

 

[mechaerik]

YES

You ruined my entire plan the first turn we were at war. I was going to steamroll French Siberia with my 122 armies, make it Russia, defend the attack, and then if I still had armies left, conquer Swazi Eastern Europe. But you traded the territories away and ruined everything. Which, IMO, was kinda gamey of you. Especially since there are no revolts in this version.

Lol. Second time my plans threw a wrench into yours.

I see it as rather brilliant.

Although I am wondering why no one ever considered making me a Downfall member. I can be scheming!


Btw, I consider that occupied territory as opposed to annexed territory. I never intended to rule it. In fact, your DoW rather helped me, as it let me set up my vassal.

 

[BSmith1068]

I have to admit we were amused at the possibility of a huge Xi’an army rolling up to Siberia and meeting a Caliph border guard saying “papers! It appears your visa is not in order…”

 

[mechaerik]

I have to admit we were amused at the possibility of a huge Xi’an army rolling up to Siberia and meeting a Caliph border guard saying “papers! It appears your visa is not in order…”

Quite. That image gave me a chuckle.

I've also been reading through the ATK group. I must admit I am much amused by the references to me.

I knew there was more to the Indian Crisis than I knew.

Although after it, I thought we were square, although I still wanted Sindh. I figured I was somewhere between the Western Accord and the ATK, politically as well as geographically. Either way, now I have Sindh. WHO'S THE ASIAN HEGEMON NOW? MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Mango Elephant]

I'm pretty sure we were going for world domination, but I can't really remember.

5 months of awesomeness. Great game, y'all.

 

[Sonereal]

I have to admit we were amused at the possibility of a huge Xi’an army rolling up to Siberia and meeting a Caliph border guard saying “papers! It appears your visa is not in order…”

"And thus the largest organized army in the history of mankind was defeated by the Caliph bureaucrat."

 

[Prospo]

I am also suprised that, considering how many people could have and wanted to swat me like a bug, that I survived this long. France, Britain, The Accord, ATK, UNA, Alaska... the list goes on and on.