Isabella and the Chamber of Secrets

[jack merchant]

All peace treaties were signed straight up . I'd have tried to write a story too if I hadn't been forced to learn about the intricacies of a dozen different health insurance policies today .

IHT Units all over the place

1812 AD (1) Indians land 4 tanks on the former Mongolian island; this is a pity as I just moved most of the troops there onto the galleons (including the settler, with which I intend to grab Celtic silks). There's 4-5 cavs left on the island and they bravely charge the tanks, killing one - another one is killed by the infantry army leaving 2 redlined tanks next to the city. Indian battleships bombard our coast, then move away. I disband a bunch of obsolete troops. Another group of corrupt cities need extra entertainers to avoid riots - good thing this war will only take 4 more turns !

IT An Indian battleship sinks a gallleon to the west of the Celt island (what were those galleons doing there anyway ?), a 2hp galleon succesfully defends against an Indian 1hp ironclad. Celts refound on the silks.

1814 AD (2) More riots New Celt city razed, settler landed on their island proper to claim the silks next turn (I'll disband some arty for an instant harbour).
Looking over our lands, I think we need to move our palace to Zamora and join a bunch of workers to the surrounding cities (which will need marketplaces) - the only city that would lose out would be Dumbledore's Junta while several cities in the north could become quite productive, particularly Zamora itself.

1816 AD (3) Only 2 riots this turn . Pueblo de Don Quixote founded; slaves and 3 artillery pieces disbanded to get a harbour next turn - we need that 4th lux ! Disband a few more old troops, kill the last indian tank near Cádiz.

1818 AD (4) The harbour comes online, but no changes to the lux rate (still at 50%)

1820 AD (5) Our lone destroyer manages to sink an Indian battleship . I decide to go and steal while we still can, throwing 1600 of our 1900 gold to an immediate steal, the only type we can afford. The spy gets away, but it fails Kill one Celt cav which attacked Pueblo de Don Quixote.

1822 AD (6) Sign peace straight-up with all AI civs. Sell luxes and iron to the Celts for 39 gpt. At this point, we need 10% luxes to keep our size-12 cities happy unless we trade for Indian luxuries - I therefore send silks and 10gpt to the Indians for wines so we can save 90gpt in all to make 648gpt at 100% taxes; with 450gp in the treasury I can only get Radio 6 turns quicker - I think the 4,000 gold we save by leaving science off should mean we can steal at least one more tech when war comes againn.
I decide to revert back to infra, build no cavs at all but only infantry and some arty so we can go pillage once war comes again. I set up a few cities as tax farms, and go over the cities to sell unnecessary improvements (ran into a few left-over walls ) saving another 40gpt.

1824 AD (7) Join a few more workers to cities to reach 738 gpt (747 after a market finishes in Constitución).

1826 AD (8) Mysteriously missed what happened this turn

1828 AD (9) Income up to 773gpt this turn, 2642 in the treasury).

1830 AD (10) A few final joinings; we still have about 45 workers and can maybe disband/use some 20 more to save gpt whcih is now at +790). I'm afraid our unit placement is a bit of a mess, but I didn't have time to sort it out completely. We need a bunch of transports and more arty, I guess; on the bright side, we should have money for plenty of steals after the peace ends and can even research one or two techs on our own once the min sci run on radio ends.

Our empire sucks researchwise, but that's more due to geography and the unlucky start so our palace and FP are too close. I'd recommend changing Zamora to Palace once the factory there finishes (or disband a few arty to speed the factory up to next turn). This should make the North productive at the cost of maybe 1-2 cities that weren't all that productive to start with.

the save

 

[Nad]

Great stuff, Jack. I'll pick up the pieces and see if we can rebuild for one final push against the Indians. I suspect the next war is going to be the last, so we'd better make it a good one. This epic is entering the final throes!!

I need to have a look at the save but I see you were disbanding some military there. Is our need for tech/gold really that bad? If we're going for a final war in 25 turns, I would think we're going to need every last unit we can get. But on the other hand, I guess we need some decent ships to survive the crossing too. Also, something I'm going to try and do, is get a settler on a boat over near the Indian continent straightaway, watching for even half a gap to plop down a city...then hopefully we can get an airport and start airlifting like crazy. Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun...can't wait, but getting late tonight and have a busy day at work tomorrow, so maybe Friday night when I play this...all suggestions welcome in the meanwhile.

Also, as it appears Meli is going through a tough patch and haqs little Civ time, we're down to 3, from an initial roster of 7 Looks like this game has been attritional in every respect

Onward!!

 

[jack merchant]

There are some gaps in the former Ottoman lands..... you'll find two settlers in Talavera and some boats in Dumbledore's and other coastal cities so plonking down a settler there should be doable - great idea ! We do at the moment lack flight, radio, mass production and motorized transportation though, with radio due in 12 IIRC.....

I didn't disband all that many military really, only really obsolete units and a few arty (we still have 60 or so). Since there are a couple of cities already that have nothing other than military to build I don't think it's a real weakening to disband some units every so often.
The real problem is India; we would be in a winning position by now if it hadn't been for India taking over the other continent with ease, the Ottomans down to one city and the Koreans really small. That's also why I didn't buy tech from the Indians, @2nd it's just way too expensive with no retrade possibilities. We can only hope we'll get lucky and Korea or Celts pick up Mass Production by the time we get Radio.
Of course, the need for extra gpt seemed far bigger in wartime than under peace; next war might be easier on the WW since we might be able to capture another lux to compensate. I think we should go and build the palace by hand in Zamora; it'd take 20-25 turns but only then can we compete economically/researchwise and we won't be able to rely on leaders unless we own the seas (fat chance, there's at least 4 Indian battleships and a bunch more frigates & ironclads over at our Eastern seaborad).

 

[mad-bax]

I think that makes you UP Nad. Heck, thats 3 SG's I'm in now with a three man roster. The turn round time is just too fast. Still, this one is nearing the end I think.

 

[Nad]

Chamber Of Secrets, Inherited turn, 1830AD

Doesn't get much more interesting than this: a massive empire, troops and cities all over the place, two civilizations down to OCC status, a massive war to prepare for and the feeling that this real epic is coming down to the wire . The pressure is now also on; we've done tremendously well to get this far, but the hardest fight of the lot awaits.

As I see it, this is the major dilemma: we have 20 turns left of peace, followed by 25 turns of war, followed by 25 more of peace. I cannot see the game lastng longer than 70 turns, realistically we can expect the Indians to launch in about 50 turns. That means we only have the one war to stop them, and only 20 turns of preparation for that war. That is a huge obstacle, as the Indians are vastly superior technologically (just look at the radio towers across their lands!), they already have tanks and by the time we fight them they will likely have mechs: mechs + metro's + radar towers + civil defence = bloodshed. I can't see us taking the war to them like that; likely we will fare better by inflciting high casulaties on the Indians through defence and bombardment, and perhaps by pillaging. Resource denial could also play an mportant role. If we can find the Indian sources of aluminium and uranium, we can target those cities to deny them those crucial resources.

How are we going to win? Not diplomatically, that's for sure! Domination is feasible...if we were to clean out all civs apart from India, I think we would be close, but by rough examination, I think we'd need quite a few Indian cities too (does anyone have mapstat to find out for sure?). Space race is unlikely at the moment, although if we can cripple the Indians (or deny them the resources) it may become a possibility.

Our biggest problem at the moment is that we're about 6-7 techs down. To catch up we need cash; but we also need military for the next war, and every unit we train reduces our income! My judgement is that cash won't do much good unless we can make a significant impact in the next war. I will do what I can to build up our cash but the priority wil be military. I won't be spending much gold this round, because if we can have a big treasury going into the next war, with a little bit of luck we can steal our way into contention.

I will try to implement the plan I mentioned of founding a city on the Indian continent, into which we can airlift out troops once we have airports.


Early


Made significant gains just by micromanaging closely. I used the workers to change irrigation to mines in maxed out core cities, and this greatly boosted our production.

I bunched military together, to keep track of where our units are. My intention is to found a city next to Izmit, with a view to raze/replacing that on the first turn of war, effectively splitting the continent, having Korea on one side and India on the other, on very narrow fronts. I began to build lots of ships, transports and destroyers, to begin transporting troops across and having some naval force to prevent Indian domination of the waves. Also, if we don't manage to get flight, controlling the seas will be vital in the next war.

Sold luxuries to Korea for gpt. Important note: we must keep Korea and the Ottomans alive!! Their free scientific techs may yet prove significant in helping us catch up technologically. We must make sure we do not eliminate them!

In 1834, India and the Ottomans signed peace. The Indians started Manhatten and the UN. This presents a problem: if the Indians complete the UN and hold elections when we next declare war, they would likely ge the votes of the other AI. I'm not sure if there's anything we can do about this except hope that the Indians have pissed Korea and the Ottomans off enough for them to abstain. We could do with taking out the Celts and Mongols next war to reduce votes in the UN.

I founded a city to create a port on the inland sea so that the productive cities there could contribute to the navy.

I was forced to buy another luxury from India for 57gpt as happiness was being stretched. The Indians wanted our luxes in exchange but I refused to give them any: we must slow them as much as we can!

Korea and the Celts also signed peace in 1836AD


Middle

Cities began to take shape at max production. I joined a few workers to core cities to work as many tiles as possible. Infrastructure is essentially complete, we may as well mobilize next war.

Completed factory in Zamora, rushed a police station and started it on the Palace. Madrid completed an army (filled with infantry) which allowed us to start the Pentagon.

The Celts and Mongols somehow got hold of Radio, but I would rather complete our research than spend 4000+ gold on a tech we will have in a few turns.


Late

The Indians founded Bangalore on Cadiz island I shipped some troops over to Cadiz to help next war, but they are outclassed by the Indian tanks...we may lose Cadiz next war unless we can get even more troops across.

The jammy Indians also managed to culturally cover the exact spot I wanted to found a city on near Izmit. On my last turn I landed settlers to found a city on a less desirable spot but one which is still in range of Izmit.

The Pentagon and another army are due to complete next turn, so Mad-Bax can also adjust our existing armies as he wishes.


Notes:

1) 2 settlers and a number of troops are on the north end of the Indin continent, ready to found a pressure city next turn. If we can take Izmit in the next war, the continent is split, and we can just block the mountain to prevent the Koreans from hurting us, while concentrating on the Indians. We really need flight and airports, as this city is miles from our homeland and shipping troops across takes ages and risks interception by Indian battleships.

2) Lots of ships are in various stages of transport. We only have ten more turns to transport units across by sea, and since it takes 7-8 turns to get from our continent to Izmit, Mad-Bax will only be able to send a few more shipments in the first couple of turns before calling the transports back to port. We have a number of destroyers patrolling the waves now.

3) I have left an infantry awake to mark our main stack on the home continent. As I mention, many more troops are on ships, in transit. Cadiz and the city on the Celt continent could use reinforcements, but shipping there takes only a couple of turns (from New Madrid, where you can move troops by rail to) so they can wait until we have reinforced the Indian continent.

4) We have 3 turns left to get radio (it would have been two but I somehow lost a scientist for one turn because I built a worker from the scientist city ). At the moment the scientist is in Cadiz. I'm not sure whether we should research flight at max next or continue to save up. I know we need flight but we might be able to steal it on the first turn of war if it is not discovered in the meantime. The tech pace is crawling, and we just don't know how far ahead the Indians are now. We know they have the UN tech (forgotten its name) but they don't have computers yet, so we're still in he game!


5) We have 10,969 gold and are making 830gpt. I spent very little. If we continue this trend, we should have approx 20,000 gold when we next declare war, thus giving Jack a big opportunity for some safe stealing to catch up in tech. Palace is due in 11 turns at Zamora, that should increase our income also.

6) Worker tasks are almost sorted, I've maximized production as appropriate. However, we should not change all the irrigation to mines; we need some surplus food tiles in case we need to run specialists next war. One thing we could use is another rail line between Vitoria and Santander: at the moment we only have one connection there so pillaging could hurt: another rail line will reduce the danger.



Finally, good luck Mad-Bax!! This could be your penultimate turn (I reckon we'll have one more rotation after the current one) and the pressure is on. Essentially you need to set Jack up, giving him as much chance as possible of hurting the Indians in the forthcoming war. We need as many troops across as quickly as possible. Flight will make this considerably easier if we can get it, otherwise, we need to contnue emphasizing navy now.


http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/ChamberOfSecrets1850AD.sav

 

[mad-bax]

Nice turns Nad.

I am up in a couple of other SG's, and can only play one a day. So this one will be played on Wednesday.

Jack, what ratio of infantry to cavalry do you want for your war?

 

[Nad]

I suspect Jack will want more artillery than infantry/cavalry

I've already shipped over a few cavalry and an infantry army. We need to ship as much arty as possible since I don't think arty can be airlifted either

 

[mad-bax]

OK, I was thinking 150 - 200 arty should be enough, so we are going to need around 20 transports, half a dozen destroyers and maybe 30 infantry. It sounds a lot to me.

Any thoughts on a battle plan? Personally I would go straight for the core, it's the shortest sea crossing anyway.

Do we have battlefield medicine?

 

[Nad]

150-200 arty I'm not sure we can build that many and ship them across. Indian battleships would sink most of them. And besides, we're going to be defending way more than attacking. When we declare war, India's tanks will pile into us, and we will have to soak up their offensive force before we can attack their cities. Personally I think infantry will be an important unit. We need infantry and defensive bonuses (ie, walls in the city we found) to soak up the tanks. There's no use having 100+ artillery if we don't have enough infantry to defend them. The infantry armies will also be massive for us in this war.

Battlefield medicine: I didn't build it, I'm not sure if we have it.

 

[jack merchant]

Great turn, Nad

I'm not sure the AI will attack a stack of 30 infantry; they might, they might not. Say 40 infantry & 100 arty for starters if we can gather that many . We should remove the Inf army from Cadiz island and use it in India instead, with one more army under construction in Madrid we'll then have three, which might be enough (the Indians founding a city on the island is my fault - I used the one settler there to grab the silks but should have shipped over another one, sorry).

I don't think we should build any more cavalry, actually - against MI in metropolises, they won't be all that effective even if we redline them all. I suspect we'll have to gamble on being able to steal Mass Production and Motorized Transportation immediately once we go to war again instead - my guess is that the Indians will send their Battleships to bombard our coast and once they do ,we bombard the crap out of them and then sneak our transports past them into their core. One tactic could be to ignore their cities and just pillage the heck out of them to starve them down - if we hurt enough core cities, we might be able to delay the Indian designs on space for long enough to go to war one more time after next.

Good luck, mad-bax !

 

[mad-bax]

Here is the save.http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/COS-1870AD.SAV

And here is the turnlog

Pre-turn OK

IBT:
Pentagon completes

1852:
Found New Barcelona
Moved boats

IBT:
Learn Radio, research mass prod in 9 turns so that flight and MT can be stolen when war starts.
India declares war on Korea

1854:
Arrange for a decent escort for next stack of transports.
Buy Mass production from Korea for WM+2170g. No bartering - I remembered.
Buy Motorised transportation from Ghandi for WM + 5730g. He already had a stack of cash, so he isn't upgrading ATM.
Research flight in 9 @50%

1856:
Idon't know why we are not already mobilised for war. So I do it.
Change all infantry builds to tanks.

IBT:
Nothing to report

1858AD still nothing

IBT:
Hmmm.. we can now build armies every 4 turns.

1860AD:
Build our first tank army.

1862AD:

1864AD:
Our navy moves into port at Barcelona.

1866AD:
Hurry rax in New Barcelona

IBT:
India and Korea make peace.

1868AD:

1870AD:
There is a battleship next to Pueblo de don Quixote, but you can bombard it b4 taking it out.

Now, this is important. All of our military is in Barcelona which is the nearest sea point to our beach head in india - New Barcelona There are destroyers and transports there. I hope the stack is strong enough. IMO it is. So I have left the movement points in these units so you can start them on their way if you want to. Don't send them all though as we need say half of them to defend our homeland.
There is an empty army in Barcelona also. A couple of the armies in New Barcelona have space for another unit. You are fighting the war so I left it to you how to do it.

Flight completes when you press space. I have left the option for you to change New Barcelona to Airport next turn, or you can hurry the harbour and wait a couple of turns for the Airport.

Ghandis money has gone, and he already has mech inf so I guess he may now have MA.

Enjoy

 

[jack merchant]

Tanks, flight and battleships ready for war ? Great job

Got it - I hope to be ready by tomorrow night or Saturday so Nad can take it in the weekend .

 

[jack merchant]

IHT Most of the Invincible Armada sets sail from NEw Barcelona, 8 tanks are sent to Zamora for mobile reserve. 8 newly built tanks are sent to New Madrid, from where they will set sail to Cadiz island next turn (the transport being hurried with the help of some cav disbandments). 7 Indian tanks are currently threatening it; I want to keep the place and then ferry the tanks over to Celtic lands. Hurry the harbour in New Barcelona for 300 gold so we can upgrade the rifles there, and maybe the infantry too if we manage to steal Computers. Also hurry a rax in Pueblo de Don Quixote.

Indians complete Manhattan

1872 AD (1) Prior to the war, I do some diplo.......Koreans get MMT for 120 gold, their free tech is fission. Ottomans gifted into the modern age, their free tech is ecology. I immediately steal them both for 3000 gold total (Let the dice fly high ! But we've never stolen from them before, maybe they were surprised...... somehow the first immediate steal does tend to work). Gandhi only leads us by Rocketry & Amphib War now, he doesn't show as having Computers yet (and still, I see an MI in one of his cities) ???
That being done, the AI leaders are once again informed of our full intention to wipe them off the face of the planet.

We start our offensive with artillery bombardment of Izmit; capturing it and refounding it 1 tile north. With an infantry army in the captured fort to its south, we have now split the Indian/Korean continent in two:

New Barcelona is renamed Ceuta, simply because I like having my Spanish nation have two outposts on another continent called Ceuta and Melilla.....

IT The only Indian counter consists of a battleship sinking a destroyer near Pueblo (the one that killed their BB last turn). Two riots from cities that I missed out on MM'ing last turn.

1874 AD (2) Sink the offending battleship. Kill 6 Indian tanks on Cadiz Island (henceforth known as Mallorca) at the cost of 2 and a cav.

My attempt to carefully steal from the Indians fails at a cost of 2,500 gold . Good thing we are still running +700gpt at 10% luxes, but I don't know how long we can hold out at that rate.
I am forced to land our force from Barcelona in Korean lands as at least two battleships and a destroyer are spotted nearby, with more maybeto come. Our destroyers bomb one of the BBs to 1hp but the regular destroyer assigned to finish it off itself sinks.

IT Indians lose 2 battleships and an ironclad attacking our shipping ( an ironclad vs a transport, the battleships vs a destroyer and a galleon !) Two BB's remain nearby. Indians also bomb the Ceuta/Melilla region heavily with planes.

1876 AD (3) Raze Pyongyang, found Hispaniola. *Very* crappy combat results in our Indian foothold as two vet tanks lose to 1hp infantry and a third one to a 2hp tank . Kill 2 more tanks and a marine on Mallorca.
The Celtic attack on Pueblo is gloriously repulsed as we lose only one cav to kill a tank, two cav and an inf, and gain the GL Bartolomé ! He rushes the United Nations on the spot, and if worst comes to worst, we can always abandon it.

IT Indians use 2 1hp battleships to attack transports, and lose one sink one. Lose 2 exposed cavs near Ceuta and Pueblo.

1878 AD (4) Kill 5 tanks, one marine at Ceuta. Destroy the 2 Indian cities on Mallorca, sinking one mroe Indian battleship in port. Take another BB out to the west of our Korean colony of Hispaniola. WW requires me to raise luxes to 30% and hire tons of entertainers in corrupt cities.... some cities that could be productive around our new palace suffer badly from lack of markets & cathedrals.
I decide to switch some of the cities with airports (We now have 4) over to fighter production as the Indians are busy destroying the infra around Ceuta and Melilla.

1880 AD (5) Airlift more tanks to Ceuta and kill 3 Indian tanks and a marine there. Also send two transports filled with workers, arty and 2 tanks to Hispaniola. Begin bombing Seoul, taking it down to size 8 from 12. Ferry over units from Mallorca over to the Celtic island, soon we'll be able to take them down a notch too (or alternatively, I might just land them on the Eastern Indian coast once they're all back to full health.

(split in two because of too many images )

 

[jack merchant]

1882 AD (6) No Indians show up near Ceuta this turn, though the bombing continues. I noticed most of their bombers come from Sinop, and sent 4 tanks there last turn. The first elite tank attacks and:

We lose one tank against another inf there but we raze the city and destroy 11 Bombers [dance]. Our path to Adana is now clear; I hope we can get a worker out of razing it to secure its gems.
To the south, we continue bombarding Seoul and the newly arrived tanks in Hispaniola split up; a newly formed Army joins the existing one and will reach Seoul in 2 turns' time; 9 more tanks move north in the direction of Wonsan. Once we grab these two cities and replace them, our path to the beachheads at Ceuta and Melilla will be clear. As importantly, we will be able to grab 2 priceless new luxes there.

IT Fierce Indian counterattack; they manage to kill 3 tanks and 2 infantry with no losses to themselves, all of which were positioned on hills & mountains , They also declare war on the Koreans

1884 AD (7) I decide to try another careful steal as per Aggie's research, and we grab Synthetic Fibers ! Gandhi still doesn't know Computers ?? We only lack rocketry now, otherwise the MA invasion would begin soon. Two MA are now shown as defending Adana; it takes almost all the arty in the area to reduce them to 2 and 1 hip respectively, and 9hps of our tank army there to take down the 2hp one. The city is ours though, and we also sink 2 damaged BB's in port. No worker for a colony on the other hand - but then I remember I can take one from Ceuta anyway. Gems will be ours next turn if we can hold that colony.
On the Korean front, we come up two tanks short of taking Wonsan after a fierce counterattack on the Korean turn . Our armies inch closer to Seoul, which we should be able to take. We do sink a Korean destroyer; the 2-turn Valladolid-Hispaniola crossing is still safe.

1886 AD (8) More fierce Korean cavs counterattack, and they're way too succesful. We get the GL Zuniga on defense, but only 4 1hp tanks remain from the 9 that originally moved on Wonsan. The attack on Seoul comes up short, too - 5 inf & cav are killed, but at least one cav remains. 9 more new tanks are sent to Wonsan, and Seoul really should fall next turn.

Korean front:

We only have 4 tanks and a badly hurt Army in the Ceuta/Melilla area now so I don't press the attack there. Scouting the area does reveal the logical next target - Nottingham to the North has Furs, and is the Indians' only source of it. A big red bull's eye is painted on it in the General Staff's map.
Celts move up 3 tanks, all are killed.

IT The three infantry defending our Gems colony on a mountain bravely defend against at least 3 MA and 2 marines, but are eventually overcome..... 2 MA's take off 9hp from the Inf army in Ceuta, 1 dies and one retreats.

1888 AD (9) WW has reached revolting levels and the lux tax has to go up to 50 % to maintain happiness in our core, lots of scrolling ahead to prevent general mayhem again. Down to 60gpt with 1600 in the kitty.
Our long-planned punch through Korea succeeding comes in rather handy, then ! Seoul falls, and Sun Tzu's Academy is lost to the ages:

Wonsan is captured and abandoned too, and the newly built town of Dyessection grabs a valuable lux. I use some of the infantry in the area to form a new Army under the command of Zuniga, and it and a second Inf army move in to form a new gems colony with 5 arty to back them up. A third Inf Army is sent to reinforce Ceuta, with now-exposed Melilla secured by bombarding away the roads through which it could otherwise be directly reached by Indian MAs. After some consideration, I do the same at Ceuta (on the downside, it means the troops there can't move out as easily with only roads in the area).
F3 check reveals India is STILL a democracy !
In Celtic lands, we take Lugdunum and refound it as Alcalá de Henares; lack of infantry in the area is telling is I have to guard it with tanks....

IT Celtic counteratttack kills 2 tanks in Alcalá. Indians leave our colony alone, but show up with 6 MA in the Ceuta/Melilla area.

1890 AD (10) Reduce all MA to 1hp and kill them all at the cost of one tank. Kill 3 Celtic tanks. We now also have an airport in Dumbledore's and 2-3 more are under construction. With our wounded tanks recovering in Ceuta, I decide to clean out the south until we have gathered enough strength to go after India proper. With that in mind, a tank Army and some loose tanks just flown in move in range to attack two Indian, former Ottoman cities there next turn.

 

[jack merchant]

Army comparison:

(we also have 39 workers, 14 rifles, 17 cav, assorted obsolete units,4 Fighters and 8 Armies, but who's counting ?)

The minimap:

And the save

In a couple of turns, we should be able to gather about 20-30 tanks and 3 tank armies for an attack on Nottingham, which will get us Furs as a 7th lux; maybe we can even lower the lux rate then. In the meantime we can go after the former Ottoman cities as Indian resistance there should be a lot lighter, and maybe we can knock them out of democracy eventually.
I'd also suggest taking a strong hard look at which units we need, as with 1840 gold in the treasury and 68gpt we won't be able to carefully steal for another 10 turns ( I've gone over the cities again, and with tax collectors now in place we're making 107gpt). Sorry for the somewhat disorganized state of our army, but these turns took long enough .

 

[Nad]

wow, Jack, that was truly awesome!! You took the fight on 3 fronts with some considerable ease!!!

And our military is now superior to India's

time!!

What say you about revolting to monarchy, or do you think we should try to stick it out in Republic?

I've got it. If we take out the Celts and clean out the Koreans (their usefulness is over now we have their free tech), we must surely be close to domination. Right?

Having said that, the way you managed to catch us up in tech suggests we might be able to opull off a space race too. We are two (?) techs behind now? And in peace we have by far the most income.

Do I dare to dream of a victory?

For now, I'll try to keep my feet on solid ground

Great stuff!

 

[jack merchant]

Well, if we stick to the policy of not stealing in peacetime, spacerace might be tricky since I suspect we won't be able to steal more than one tech in the remaining war turns. But at least we won't lose by diplo .
The happiness situation is not too bad actually; we may be able to go back to 40% luxes right now but I haven't checked as during the course of these turns I had to scroll through all cities 3 or 4 times already, and we have quite a few cities . Once we grab the Indian furs we should be able to hold out in Republic but as long as we're running 40-50% luxes the extra trade from it is eaten up by the lux tax anyway ! Tough choice, but it's your call .

I'm not too sure about domination since the Indian core is rather sizable, and there is the population requirement too. However, the Indians don't have that many metropolises presumably due to the entertainers, so that's manageable. Also, they don't seem to be able to send more than 5-6 MAs against us per turn, which is survivable.
The Celtic front needs some reinforcements as I only have 2 infantry there now, though more tanks and a decent number of arty. I have begun building some more inf in the slower-producing towns, it's probably easiest to just peeel off a worker there and build an airfield for speedier reinforcemennts. TThe ships to the SW of Celtia are supposed to be headed for the Indian town with gems, maybe we can knock thosue out too.

Anyhow, even though the turns take quite a while since there's so much to do and so much to keep track of, I had a blast playing them and I think you will too ! Also many thanks to mad-bax for the excellent state our empire was in on the inherited turn; a lot of the progress due to his organization of the army.

 

[mad-bax]

Really well done Jack.
I think domination would be the way to go if we had time. But I don't think we could manage it this round, and in 40 turns time India may already have won by Space race.

It's a difficult call, but I think Space might be our best option, unless we can get enough tiles for domination and work on the population during the peace turns.

I'll have a look at what mapstat says. Clearly we need to grab as much land as possible in the next 15 turns.

 

[mad-bax]

Mapstat says we are 384 tiles from the limit, and there are 185 unclaimed tiles. We are only 176 pop from the limit. Can we get around 250 tiles in 15 turns. It'll require some aggressive settling since when we raze cities the enemies culture will cover the sites. But maybe it is doable.

 

[jack merchant]

Keep in mind that we can't build temples at the moment.... however, we may be able to knock the Indians out of Democracy still by capturing those cities on the Western side of their continent that are cut off from land reinforcement to hurt their commerce. The pop of their cities is already falling since they are down to 4 luxes at the moment and we may make that 3 by razing Nottingham (although progress will be painful against MA..... ) so maybe their staying in Demo is all the better for us !