LK147 - world map, China
- Thread starter LKendter
- Start date
Played to 1455 so far. Just been working on straightening up our front lines before attacking Egypt. We have a much better situation that mostly borders Russia in a straight line to the west (one more german town to capture) and just the final narrow part to the east with a Russian and German civ being the only 2 cities we are next to (got to the narrower part).
Took me about 6 hours to do the two turns, so I seem to be averaging 3 hours a turn. That may speed up now we have a more sensible front. I have time to play so I will continue and see what I can do. I will probably keep the game until Christmas or so and pass it off with what I have, or whenever I reach 10 turns if that happens first.
Took me about 6 hours to do the two turns, so I seem to be averaging 3 hours a turn. That may speed up now we have a more sensible front. I have time to play so I will continue and see what I can do. I will probably keep the game until Christmas or so and pass it off with what I have, or whenever I reach 10 turns if that happens first.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2001
- Messages
- 19,617
Feel free to keep it awhile. Holidays suck for playing time. I'm up in Rat45, and no idea when I can finish that.
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We are moving forward. We are now the #1 civ at 16.1% of the world.
If Greebley hasn't already done it, with 39 resistors we need another draft round. Don't forget Japan can be drafted, and use the Japan shuttle galleon.
It is tough commenting after a couple of turns are played. However, when I look at a Siberia city like Izibia the first thing I want is a temple.
Locked borders are very important with us keeping the core without troops. Don't forget we can chop some temples out with all that forest.
It is a minor issue, but can we get that elite infantry off of Japan. One danger with the island hopping is to have stranded elites / workers.
We can use some more infantry, as I notice elite infantry guarding towns in Siberia.
I am not sure why our transports are split from our escorts. Can we get them merged again?
MM - Some cities such as Persepolis are primarily specialist farms. They are to corrupt to every help much. The best thing we can do is go food crazy.
Other cities such as Dacca badly need some tiles mined. This city is keeping ~50% shields, but way too much food. Getting some Indian cities production will go a long way toward speeding things up.
We are further into Babylon then I expected from the report.
I suspect Greebley may be already working on it, but I would really like to take the Middle East from Babylon.
Trading:
Russia will give an unreal $665/T for electronics. At these stupid wars are killing trading partners, so milking Russia for all it is worth would help.
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
The resistor problem stemms from takiking 6 large cities in 2 turns.
If anything in siberia isn't making a temple, it's an oversight, not becausr I was trying to build anything else.
The transports got split because we sank a batch of privateers and galleons. The Transports dropped stuff off and ran back for cover in the cities. The one transport in the open was a misclick on my part that I wasn't going to reload for.
Probably right about Dacca. Not somewhere I can open the game. Anything mined over there in Persia that's flat ground wasn't done by me.
I've was keeping an eye on Russia nad Electronics. I expect we can get even more than that soon, but would have no issue selling it safely either. They offered more at one point, but I sold them Espionage which they paid to the last penny instead. This is why I set out to keep them friendly by whatever means necessary.
We got MOST of the workers that were poached back. I have been chopping temples. In fact, at one size 6 city, I chopped a temple, then chopped workers off 1 by 1.
We MIGHT have been able to make better progress if I had been a tad more aggressibe, but I was in unit preservation mode. I think we're in a position now to be more aggressive.
Regarding E Infantry. My goal was to ET with any unused ones defending cities that might get attacked. and then use them on offense if the need arose by swapping others in.
Another round of drafting would be ok with me. I think we're at the point where suing an army or two in a city is a non terrible idea. Conscripts are more disposable, but losing one won't cripple us anymore.
I know the last turn wasn't the best, but I don't think it was horrible. My thoughts have been with my family, and with the little girl we hope will be part of our family the last few days. While playing was helpful in some ways, because it kept my mind off of other things. it was also difficult at times.
Realistically, this game is now ours to lose. We should win this game, it's just grinding it out now.
I know our front was crap. Largely because I had the pnaic moment of getting rid of Babylon's Rubber... and Persia also got RP the turn I got rid of THEIR rubber, though I did not realize it till after.
BTW - I envy your 3 hour turns. Some of mine must have taken like five
PS - Don't forget not to raise Thebes, It's got the Pyramids!
If anything in siberia isn't making a temple, it's an oversight, not becausr I was trying to build anything else.
The transports got split because we sank a batch of privateers and galleons. The Transports dropped stuff off and ran back for cover in the cities. The one transport in the open was a misclick on my part that I wasn't going to reload for.
Probably right about Dacca. Not somewhere I can open the game. Anything mined over there in Persia that's flat ground wasn't done by me.
I've was keeping an eye on Russia nad Electronics. I expect we can get even more than that soon, but would have no issue selling it safely either. They offered more at one point, but I sold them Espionage which they paid to the last penny instead. This is why I set out to keep them friendly by whatever means necessary.
We got MOST of the workers that were poached back. I have been chopping temples. In fact, at one size 6 city, I chopped a temple, then chopped workers off 1 by 1.
We MIGHT have been able to make better progress if I had been a tad more aggressibe, but I was in unit preservation mode. I think we're in a position now to be more aggressive.
Regarding E Infantry. My goal was to ET with any unused ones defending cities that might get attacked. and then use them on offense if the need arose by swapping others in.
Another round of drafting would be ok with me. I think we're at the point where suing an army or two in a city is a non terrible idea. Conscripts are more disposable, but losing one won't cripple us anymore.
I know the last turn wasn't the best, but I don't think it was horrible. My thoughts have been with my family, and with the little girl we hope will be part of our family the last few days. While playing was helpful in some ways, because it kept my mind off of other things. it was also difficult at times.
Realistically, this game is now ours to lose. We should win this game, it's just grinding it out now.
I know our front was crap. Largely because I had the pnaic moment of getting rid of Babylon's Rubber... and Persia also got RP the turn I got rid of THEIR rubber, though I did not realize it till after.
BTW - I envy your 3 hour turns. Some of mine must have taken like five
PS - Don't forget not to raise Thebes, It's got the Pyramids!
I had done most of what was pointed out, but not the resistors. I will work on that more as I play on.
The front was manageable so I think going after the Rubber was the right play. I was able to straighten it out by 2 turns later.
For tundra towns with chopped temples, I am going to use mines to mark chopped ones instead of forest (plant/chop then mine) or leaving them blank. Mines are equally good if railed and we have plenty of worker actions to rail with. This way we know where we have chopped.
Up to turn 3 and we have captured Thebes with the Pyramids. The rest of Egypt's core is next. The rest of the front is stable with only one non-Russian neighbor outside the middle east. That is because I haven't fully taken Siberia as there is a single Russian town that would make our front lines longer if we take everything but that town.
I think I am going to work at starting up research again after Mass Production is gained by the AI. Having tanks when the AI doesn't can be very powerful so its good if we get there first. The number of AI researching is dropping as we conquer them so we finally have a chance of being first and hopefully at a reasonable number of turns. I want universities in any case to boost our culture. Culture will keep cities from flipping, towns will have fewer resistors, and passify more easily. At our low culture it's grueling work. We are getting more libraries as well for the culture expansion and overall culture.
BTW the elite infantry you mentioned (I did grab them) were wonderful at getting leaders(vs 1 hp Cav so the don't retreat). 3 turns and we have gone from 19 to 27 armies (one was rushed in capitol). I would like to get to the Army limit which is approaching 30 now (28 at last count). The speed I can advance is based on the number of Cavalry armies in play.
Off to play some more turns. Given Lee's post I will likely play all 10 however long that takes. Christmas time is still a good guess though
The front was manageable so I think going after the Rubber was the right play. I was able to straighten it out by 2 turns later.
For tundra towns with chopped temples, I am going to use mines to mark chopped ones instead of forest (plant/chop then mine) or leaving them blank. Mines are equally good if railed and we have plenty of worker actions to rail with. This way we know where we have chopped.
Up to turn 3 and we have captured Thebes with the Pyramids. The rest of Egypt's core is next. The rest of the front is stable with only one non-Russian neighbor outside the middle east. That is because I haven't fully taken Siberia as there is a single Russian town that would make our front lines longer if we take everything but that town.
I think I am going to work at starting up research again after Mass Production is gained by the AI. Having tanks when the AI doesn't can be very powerful so its good if we get there first. The number of AI researching is dropping as we conquer them so we finally have a chance of being first and hopefully at a reasonable number of turns. I want universities in any case to boost our culture. Culture will keep cities from flipping, towns will have fewer resistors, and passify more easily. At our low culture it's grueling work. We are getting more libraries as well for the culture expansion and overall culture.
BTW the elite infantry you mentioned (I did grab them) were wonderful at getting leaders(vs 1 hp Cav so the don't retreat). 3 turns and we have gone from 19 to 27 armies (one was rushed in capitol). I would like to get to the Army limit which is approaching 30 now (28 at last count). The speed I can advance is based on the number of Cavalry armies in play.
Off to play some more turns. Given Lee's post I will likely play all 10 however long that takes. Christmas time is still a good guess though
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2001
- Messages
- 19,617
Good point on the culture. That is another advantage to chopping those temples. Every point helps with that issue.
This is another advantage of island hopping. It gives us more cities to build culture in.
Can we fill 27 armies?
That is unreal leader luck!. Is it time for some more infantry armies? They do help with island hopping. Three elite* in an army will help.
If we run out of armies rushed buildings always help. I know we have plenty of ok towns that can still use factories, courthouses, police stations, etc.
That sounds really good. I don't expect much Rat45 process until 12/27. If the game gets back to fast after CKS, it will just sit.
I am fine with slow in Siberia. It isn't like we get a lot of specialists from those cities.
It will take awhile to get Egypt's core. However, once we do we have the debate about taking out the rest of Africa. Egypt is going to be really tough to break resistors. We need more junk to break with. Thebes is very critical for the Pyramids and it is the choke point to leave Africa.
We don't have the advantage of forest to chop out workers like I did in the Siberia higher pop towns. One great thing about chops is the shields work during resistance. I think Ataly was the city I chopped 5 or 6 workers from to drop the count. I also chopped some workers from some other cities, and speed up temples via chops.
Some of Egypt's cities are absurdly large. I think I saw a size 24. Do we want to simply raze and replace some of these? Breaking 24 resistors will be really tough.
One thought on some of our extreme food cities. Do we hire some civil engineers to speed up getting temples / aqueducts? Getting to size 12 is optimal for max specialists.
Fortunately, Egypt has not built a lot of Hospitals - most cities are size 12. I did capture one with 23 resisters just now. I think I will raze and replace anything over size 12.
I did build at least one Infantry Army. I think we have 3 now total.
I did build at least one Infantry Army. I think we have 3 now total.
I'm good with razing anything over size 12.
If we don't have lots of forests to chop into temples, do hire civil engineers. They are pretty speedy. However, remember that if a town is starving, its scientists will pay off before they starve, but civil engineers get auto-reassigned upon starvation, and never produce any shields, so don't use CE when the population is dropping.
Great job on getting to Thebes.
If we don't have lots of forests to chop into temples, do hire civil engineers. They are pretty speedy. However, remember that if a town is starving, its scientists will pay off before they starve, but civil engineers get auto-reassigned upon starvation, and never produce any shields, so don't use CE when the population is dropping.
Great job on getting to Thebes.
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
We're currently using taxmen, but yeah, good point on the CE. I've used a couple of them.
I dono what took him so long to take Thebes, I mean, I took the city right next to it for him. (I kid of course. I agree with his priorities.)
One thing I do want to point out is there is rubber under Hindana, if Babylon would ever build a harbor or road there... You might want to take a look at eliminating that city.
I dono what took him so long to take Thebes, I mean, I took the city right next to it for him.
(I kid of course. I agree with his priorities.)One thing I do want to point out is there is rubber under Hindana, if Babylon would ever build a harbor or road there... You might want to take a look at eliminating that city.
Lurker:
Just in case anyone forgot, CAII can show you the tiles that have been chopped. Probably a real pain for this map, except for a once in a turn peek.
Just in case anyone forgot, CAII can show you the tiles that have been chopped. Probably a real pain for this map, except for a once in a turn peek.
This is only a partial turnset, but I thought I would give you an update. I still have 3 turns to go
I had more time than usual so I put a bit more into the turn log making it a bit long and lots of pictures. The short form is we took the parts of the middle east and Siberia to minimize our front line, and then romped across Africa.
When I have time to go into more detail it doesn't mean I will list kills and builds. I can forget to note when we get a leader, or the name of the town I just razed, much less our individual wins and losses. Instead it will be more about the strategy and tactics used. Also note that I don't claim they are the best strategies - rather they are the ones I enjoy the most.
Preturn:
I use the non-moved infantry to cover units - specifically workers that could be captured out of the fog
Looking at the military situation, we could own the east of Siberia as there is only one city of a civ we are not at war with - a single Russian one of Chita. It would help make the front shorter to do so, so I will dedicate a few armies to it.
There is also a Babylon owned peninsula (I think Qatar or Saudi Arabia is on it in RL) and the Egyptian core. I would like to break Egypt if I can on my turns.
I also check out how hard each civ is to kill off to stop flips and each civ will be major work to eliminate. They all have islands in hard to get to locations. We have started the campaign against the islands and I will continue it. May take a long time though.
For tech I could probably get Mass Production down to 16 turns or so and I think the AI will get it first so I keep us on track with the stealing. (Research times are so long compared to other games because of the numerous islands actually - we can't kill civs and get big cities filled with scientists [Edit: We are also missing science buildings like universities]
One final note: I really want to boost our culture. A smaller gain by us in culture can reduce the culture multiplier and lessen flips everywhere. For the top civ Egypt, once we take their cities we can start catching up a bit as they slow down. Right now we are a bit worse than 4x for them (4x may be the worst penalty - I never have been able to figure out if this is true)
Initial picture of Siberia
Initial picture of Islands
Initial picture of the Middle East
IBT: One Babylon Cavalry comes out from the frozen north and dies. A German unit attack our west-most city. An infantry is attacked by Egyptian Cavalry, plus more appear. Keep the builds on mostly military. Got a square of pollution.
1445 AD:
Start in Siberia by taking Bayonne to connect with Mycenae in the north. We capture a Treb and Cannon that I upgrade.
Islands next capturing Tanis and New Bangalore. We are now 6 armies short of maximum with only 19 out of 25 (after I capture one more city). For this reason I go leader fishing and net 3 Leaders for 3 more Cavalry armies. I also switched the capitol to Army and rushed one - a one time extravagance(I did it first before getting the leaders). Note that I woke up some elites including elite Infantry and on islands. I used 1 hp Egyptian Cavalry for the kills. After the elites I started using conscript Infantry to bring to regular. 3 towns were at maximum size so I drafted in each of them as well.
Next I sent our Cavalry Armies after cities in the south-west. On the Qatar peninsula using our Cavalry Armies, I captured Eridu (Babylon) and Alexandria (Egypt near African choke), Ellipi, Eulbar, Shuruppak and finally Nippur which is a bit of a stretch (11 hp army vs Rifle in small city which almost always wins) but I wanted to clear the peninsula. Note that 13 hp Cav Army vs Rifleman and its very rare you will lose unless city is over size 12 or on hill (where its still rare to lose but there is some risk).
To handle the fairly complex 'front' I cut off access to our lands. I mostly use unit placement to do this. In Siberia we are not going to get attacked by lots of units so even single Infantry are enough The other technique I will use is to cut roads with pillaging (sword army is good for this with its free pillage) and infantry defended artillery bombardment of roads to limit access, but that technique is best for enemy territory. Here we don't want to cut our roads and can't cut the Russian ones.
The downside of this technique is that it takes time to find every single access point (unseen square) a speed 3 unit can use to get in and to cover them all. Also bombarded squares need to be repaired and blocking units can be attacked. However, the AI will usually go around a well defended square rather than attack. Armies outside of towns are only attacked in extremely rare cases so even the sword army is a pretty much guaranteed blocker until tanks appear.
I always have at least one defender in towns near the border in case I miscalculate or an AI kills a blocking unit - at least 2 if larger number of units can show up.
I will cover coastal cities if I can find free units. I don't know that its necessary though because the AI will land first giving a round to react. The danger here is if you miss a landing your town is taken.
Some pics of said defense:
IBT: Babylon & India sign peace. A single Cavalry attacks a tundra town and loses.
1450 AD: Before I go after Egypt I want to take a tundra turn to fix our front lines which are chaotic.
Capture Tundra towns of Kandahar (Persia), Merv (Egyptian), Herakleia, New Lehore is destroyed, Capture Strasburg(French) near rubber, and Bampur(Persian). Stuttgart is a tough nut to crack as it has 2 forests in every direction. I need to use a combat settler (settling one closer) to bring it in range
I attack the German city of Bayanhongor but don't have enough to capture it. It is still the only one with Infantry.
We capture the island city New Karachi (India)
Many towns are fully developed so I use some Workers to chop down forests and 'plant and chop' to get libraries.
Current Siberia:
IBT: Ashur deposes us and Shuruppak. We lost no units in Ashur and at most a Infantry in Shurappak.
We lose an infantry in Uruk near the choke to a Cavalry. Slower Egyptian units show up - rifles and such.
1455 AD: For islands we capture Hyderabad from India, and Tureng Tepe from Persia. Looks like we may be sharing the Tureng Tepe city with Australia as they landed troops that block off access to their city. Only if Australia loses will we be able to get next to the city.
Capture Bayanhongor which will be one of the last cities to the north I will take. Our front is as good as it gets with us at peace with Russia.
For killing units, we get a leader and army number 25 (I may have missed one in the log? rushed once so 5 leader wins.)
Count cities again...114 so need 3 more armies to reach the limit... and get another leader on the next attack for 26 and 2 short.
Recapture Ashur and Shuruppak.
We finally use our Armies vs Thebes capturing 5 Artillery. Thebes has pyramids.
For Trading, Venezuela and Russia combined will give us about 4k and 900gpt for electronics. I take it as the AI will get Electronic soon. This puts us at 11789 gold and 2657 gpt. I then spend a good bit (down to 2.8k) rushing units and libraries. For libraries I would really like to lessen flips - the number of flips is high this game. It also expands the borders and makes it harder for enemy troops to get into the inner cities if a mistake is made in defense.
The next Egyptian cities are large 12 and 27 and 2 squares to get to them so Artillery moving into their territory this turn will bombard the next. Given that there is also a lot less units needing bombardment, I can do this with a goodly number of Artillery which is good timing with the size 27 city.
Also notice a Siberian rubber not now in any border so I build Ningpo on top of it.
The sword pillaged so it can leave the square and Egypt still can't get to Uruk no matter what.
IBT: Egypt and India aren't fighting anymore. India and France sign peace treaty. Egypt shows up with more Cavalry this turn with a stack of 14 as well as Babylon Cavalry from Africa as well. Taking Thebes has made Egypt react.
1460 AD: Red-line and capture Heliopolis and Memphis (with 23 resisters = replaced by Rapid River), El-Armana is captured the regular way requiring 3 healthy armies to kill 4 units as the first two are damaged upon attack. Pi-Ramseese has 6 units requiring 4 armies. Avaris only has 3 and is captured with just 2 armies. We attack Tadmekket and kill a few Rifles. Set up small bombard on Elephantine.
For these attacks we often pick up Artillery and Workers. I didn't record numbers, but it was at least 10 artillery and 20 workers.
I do not try to limit access to the Egyptian lands - Instead everything is covered. Infantry in enemy lands was Worker captures with 2 infantry. The sword pillage would stop attacks in the middle east. I think I also covered the exposed Elite unit in picture with an Infantry on a later check.
To help with resistance suppression, I go and wake up all our units on our continent for (I use ctrl-shift-n choosing 'units' for this as below (and ctrl-shift-m to restore normal view after in case you don't remember))
The purpose of this is redistribution of units. Often some units are fortified in not-so-useful spots, so this maximizes unit usage. With more time to play, so its a good time to do this. I was also planning on drafting more units but hit return by accident too soon and went to the next turn.
IBT: France and India vs Russia. Thebes deposes us. The only good bit is that it shrinks the city 6 size points after we take it back to size 5.
1465 AD: Retake and Thebes and regain the Pyramids. Attack and capture size 16 Tadmekket. Bombard and capture Elephantine. Lost an Elite cav vs an injured Cav.
We have another very tricky defense situation again where everything is railed and there are many squares to deal with. I use the following strategy this time:
If I can draw a line through squares that are:
1) water (endpoints are sea) or
2) in our territory or
3) roadless or
4) Occupied by a strong force
then it takes 2 movement points to get past, one to move in and one to move out. This gives a cavalry one movement point left which cannot take a non-front line city. For a second blocking line it can only move in. [Edit: I forgot to mention that if the two lines are adjacent you can move out the second blocking square ( 1) move in first, 2) move in second and out of first, 3) move out of second) ]
So in the picture below the light blue line is the first line taking 2 to get through. Any square behind the darker blue line is safe as well as towns not on the borders. Anything in the middle area or on the edge of our territory can be attacked and has to be well defended. This greatly simplifies knowing what to defend and frees up the towns behind the line from needing heavy defense. For the picture I used the delete key to remove the UI elements to get the full screen for the picture and made it less cluttered using the ctrl-shift-n - its easier to find the paths. Fortunately, the AI moves before a flip so a flipped city doesn't allow the AI in further. A captured city IS a risk allowing the AI through.
For the picture it is before I added defenders to Artillery and Worker.
Armies are mostly healing or heading to a city to heal. I send the Artillery forward for next turn splitting between several city
Work on suppression and do some drafting.
IBT: Landing of a single Aztec in Japan Egypt is starting to use Destroyers to bombard us. We lose a conscript Infantry that I mis-clicked with. Also a single attack on our city.
We have to renegotiate for Ivory and its expensive for us. We have no tech to trade, so I thrown in 55 gtp with wines to get it.
No units show up otherwise to kill Maybe our cities are too well guarded. I would like work on more leaders.
1470 AD: Starting with the islands we use ship bombardment and then capture Herat from Persia. Going for Wagga Wagga we get a leader and capture the city. Infantry army take out Kiwinana on the same island. There are some logistic issues (no unit but can't rush due to resistance) with Hyderabad so I need a transport to deal with it. There are Egyptians all over the island but no Egyptian towns and one more Indian city. So the forces will be passifying the island in the meantime
Kill off the Aztec unit on the island. No need to get anything from mainland.
We also got a leader which we have to bring back to the mainland...
For the main battle against Egypt:
Red-line Giza with Artillery. Use an Army and Elite Cavalry gaining us another leader (leader luck has been VERY good this turnset) Giza has Leonardo's Workshop but we don't have much in the way of upgrades.
Bombard and capture Buto using more Elite Cav.
Red-line Sokoto and attack it with the Remaining Elite and some Veteran Cavalry losing one Veteran one. Can also attack a Babylon town of Awlil. I notice that some of the next cities have 0 or 1 border expansions which is great as it allows us to use the Artillery. I lose another Vet Cav on awlil, Final town we sent Artillery against is Edfu which we bombard and capture with Cavalry without loss.
Timbuktu (Egypt) is now reachable by artillery so I bombard and capture it. I do the same thing for Gao - size 12 Babylon capital with no border expansion. I follow with Tendirma which is similar. I even use the sword army for the first time on attack since it can reach. Katsina is next and easily falls to a Cavalry Army. Kano uses the first full hit point army and we have reached the West Coast of Africa, Egyptian town of Abydos is next. It has culture so it takes 2 armies but it frees up unused Artillery. I can bombard and Capture Kukiya and finally Busa. Hombori (Bablyon) is range 2 and takes 2 armies
I use a Combat Settler to get closer to Byblos the last big city in North Africa. Byblos gets us Copernicus and it takes us 3 Armies to capture kill their 4 units. Finally I capture Segu to the Southwest. This leaves one final Cavalry army for cutting roads and setting up defense plus a few others with low movement to block access.
First I isolate Zanqum the only remaining northern city.
Then I work on the southern lines. The picture method actually worked pretty well at seeing where the issues are so I did it again. Orange is where the two lines touch and you can actually pass over the second line. Also units allow both lines to go through the square. (this is before moving the infantry to defend cities and such)
I also do try to protect the vulnerable units in case the enemy breaks through the lines. My hope though is that our stacks won't get attacked at all.
I also place a few outposts. to bring squares into visibility - especially coastal ones. If units land there it can wreak havoc. Drafted a few towns that looked good for units.
I will show a before and after picture because rarely do I have the opportunity to utilize the units so well. If you look at the 1465 you can see the AI does not have border expansions in the west which allowed for this progress they must have recently switched civs.
I could tell I was getting a bit tired because this picture shows 3 (fairly obvious) mistakes I made. Sadly, this picture is the final one befire hitting return. I stopped after this for the night.
I also use the forest chop to rush resisting workers in a few towns and rushed a few universities as our cash reserves are good.
IBT: There are some attacks by Egypt. Some Cavalry I think I forgot to move and an infantry with Cav underneath and one town. We lose an infantry and 3 Cav and kill several Egyptian Cavalry (6?). Well next line will be a good bit shorter and easier to deal with. A single Cavalry lands on our main island.
1475 AD: Islands I kill a Rifle on the Indian island. All but one army are healing or being transported.
For Egypt, I capture Koumbi Saleh first which allows us to Bombard and Capture the two towns to the west, Diara and Agadez. Zariqum the town still to the North only has 2 defenders so we are able to capture it with the Army that moved towards it last turn. That is the last town on Africa itself that is Babylon, though there are 4 African islands that are Babalonian. Next we capture Gwandu using our Armies and now own the horn of Africa and can start attacking south.
An attack settler is called for next as it will allow us to reach 2 more towns with Artillery. We disband Buto and build Banana farm. We then Bombard and Capture New Elephantine which allows us to Bombard and Capture El-Ashmunein and then Umfolozi
The second town we got closer to is Nioro which we Bombard and Capture, which in turn allows us to bombard and capture New Ulundi and then Kangaba.
I really wanted to conguer Asyut for a better front but we were already stetched getting this.
Kill the Landing and the rest of the red-lined enemies but no leader from our elite victories.
The following picture has zero to do with the game so I'll hide it. I accidentally loaded it and it was (sorta) on topic. The defense displayed caused several vastly superior civs to leave us alone for a vital period of time. I think we opened the lines to lure units and then closed again.
IBT: Attacks on an Infantry fail with 3 Cavalry (by Egypt) Sokoto deposes us to Egypt. It costs an Elite* Cavalry that was healing/suppressing resistance. El-Amama, Abydos also deposes us losing nothing (the suppressor units were pretending to be a wall I think. Kwinana deposes us to Australia who never owned the town. They have several blocks bordering us. I am glad I moved out the army. I was tempted to let it heal faster in the town. We lose no units, but can't take the town back.
I had more time than usual so I put a bit more into the turn log making it a bit long and lots of pictures. The short form is we took the parts of the middle east and Siberia to minimize our front line, and then romped across Africa.
When I have time to go into more detail it doesn't mean I will list kills and builds. I can forget to note when we get a leader, or the name of the town I just razed, much less our individual wins and losses. Instead it will be more about the strategy and tactics used. Also note that I don't claim they are the best strategies - rather they are the ones I enjoy the most.
Preturn:
I use the non-moved infantry to cover units - specifically workers that could be captured out of the fog
Looking at the military situation, we could own the east of Siberia as there is only one city of a civ we are not at war with - a single Russian one of Chita. It would help make the front shorter to do so, so I will dedicate a few armies to it.
There is also a Babylon owned peninsula (I think Qatar or Saudi Arabia is on it in RL) and the Egyptian core. I would like to break Egypt if I can on my turns.
I also check out how hard each civ is to kill off to stop flips and each civ will be major work to eliminate. They all have islands in hard to get to locations. We have started the campaign against the islands and I will continue it. May take a long time though.
For tech I could probably get Mass Production down to 16 turns or so and I think the AI will get it first so I keep us on track with the stealing. (Research times are so long compared to other games because of the numerous islands actually - we can't kill civs and get big cities filled with scientists [Edit: We are also missing science buildings like universities]
One final note: I really want to boost our culture. A smaller gain by us in culture can reduce the culture multiplier and lessen flips everywhere. For the top civ Egypt, once we take their cities we can start catching up a bit as they slow down. Right now we are a bit worse than 4x for them (4x may be the worst penalty - I never have been able to figure out if this is true)
Initial picture of Siberia
Initial picture of Islands
Initial picture of the Middle East
IBT: One Babylon Cavalry comes out from the frozen north and dies. A German unit attack our west-most city. An infantry is attacked by Egyptian Cavalry, plus more appear. Keep the builds on mostly military. Got a square of pollution.
1445 AD:
Start in Siberia by taking Bayonne to connect with Mycenae in the north. We capture a Treb and Cannon that I upgrade.
Islands next capturing Tanis and New Bangalore. We are now 6 armies short of maximum with only 19 out of 25 (after I capture one more city). For this reason I go leader fishing and net 3 Leaders for 3 more Cavalry armies. I also switched the capitol to Army and rushed one - a one time extravagance(I did it first before getting the leaders). Note that I woke up some elites including elite Infantry and on islands. I used 1 hp Egyptian Cavalry for the kills. After the elites I started using conscript Infantry to bring to regular. 3 towns were at maximum size so I drafted in each of them as well.
Next I sent our Cavalry Armies after cities in the south-west. On the Qatar peninsula using our Cavalry Armies, I captured Eridu (Babylon) and Alexandria (Egypt near African choke), Ellipi, Eulbar, Shuruppak and finally Nippur which is a bit of a stretch (11 hp army vs Rifle in small city which almost always wins) but I wanted to clear the peninsula. Note that 13 hp Cav Army vs Rifleman and its very rare you will lose unless city is over size 12 or on hill (where its still rare to lose but there is some risk).
To handle the fairly complex 'front' I cut off access to our lands. I mostly use unit placement to do this. In Siberia we are not going to get attacked by lots of units so even single Infantry are enough The other technique I will use is to cut roads with pillaging (sword army is good for this with its free pillage) and infantry defended artillery bombardment of roads to limit access, but that technique is best for enemy territory. Here we don't want to cut our roads and can't cut the Russian ones.
The downside of this technique is that it takes time to find every single access point (unseen square) a speed 3 unit can use to get in and to cover them all. Also bombarded squares need to be repaired and blocking units can be attacked. However, the AI will usually go around a well defended square rather than attack. Armies outside of towns are only attacked in extremely rare cases so even the sword army is a pretty much guaranteed blocker until tanks appear.
I always have at least one defender in towns near the border in case I miscalculate or an AI kills a blocking unit - at least 2 if larger number of units can show up.
I will cover coastal cities if I can find free units. I don't know that its necessary though because the AI will land first giving a round to react. The danger here is if you miss a landing your town is taken.
Some pics of said defense:
IBT: Babylon & India sign peace. A single Cavalry attacks a tundra town and loses.
1450 AD: Before I go after Egypt I want to take a tundra turn to fix our front lines which are chaotic.
Capture Tundra towns of Kandahar (Persia), Merv (Egyptian), Herakleia, New Lehore is destroyed, Capture Strasburg(French) near rubber, and Bampur(Persian). Stuttgart is a tough nut to crack as it has 2 forests in every direction. I need to use a combat settler (settling one closer) to bring it in range
I attack the German city of Bayanhongor but don't have enough to capture it. It is still the only one with Infantry.
We capture the island city New Karachi (India)
Many towns are fully developed so I use some Workers to chop down forests and 'plant and chop' to get libraries.
Current Siberia:
IBT: Ashur deposes us and Shuruppak. We lost no units in Ashur and at most a Infantry in Shurappak.
We lose an infantry in Uruk near the choke to a Cavalry. Slower Egyptian units show up - rifles and such.
1455 AD: For islands we capture Hyderabad from India, and Tureng Tepe from Persia. Looks like we may be sharing the Tureng Tepe city with Australia as they landed troops that block off access to their city. Only if Australia loses will we be able to get next to the city.
Capture Bayanhongor which will be one of the last cities to the north I will take. Our front is as good as it gets with us at peace with Russia.
For killing units, we get a leader and army number 25 (I may have missed one in the log? rushed once so 5 leader wins.)
Count cities again...114 so need 3 more armies to reach the limit... and get another leader on the next attack for 26 and 2 short.
Recapture Ashur and Shuruppak.
We finally use our Armies vs Thebes capturing 5 Artillery. Thebes has pyramids.
For Trading, Venezuela and Russia combined will give us about 4k and 900gpt for electronics. I take it as the AI will get Electronic soon. This puts us at 11789 gold and 2657 gpt. I then spend a good bit (down to 2.8k) rushing units and libraries. For libraries I would really like to lessen flips - the number of flips is high this game. It also expands the borders and makes it harder for enemy troops to get into the inner cities if a mistake is made in defense.
The next Egyptian cities are large 12 and 27 and 2 squares to get to them so Artillery moving into their territory this turn will bombard the next. Given that there is also a lot less units needing bombardment, I can do this with a goodly number of Artillery which is good timing with the size 27 city.
Also notice a Siberian rubber not now in any border so I build Ningpo on top of it.
The sword pillaged so it can leave the square and Egypt still can't get to Uruk no matter what.
IBT: Egypt and India aren't fighting anymore. India and France sign peace treaty. Egypt shows up with more Cavalry this turn with a stack of 14 as well as Babylon Cavalry from Africa as well. Taking Thebes has made Egypt react.
1460 AD: Red-line and capture Heliopolis and Memphis (with 23 resisters = replaced by Rapid River), El-Armana is captured the regular way requiring 3 healthy armies to kill 4 units as the first two are damaged upon attack. Pi-Ramseese has 6 units requiring 4 armies. Avaris only has 3 and is captured with just 2 armies. We attack Tadmekket and kill a few Rifles. Set up small bombard on Elephantine.
For these attacks we often pick up Artillery and Workers. I didn't record numbers, but it was at least 10 artillery and 20 workers.
I do not try to limit access to the Egyptian lands - Instead everything is covered. Infantry in enemy lands was Worker captures with 2 infantry. The sword pillage would stop attacks in the middle east. I think I also covered the exposed Elite unit in picture with an Infantry on a later check.
To help with resistance suppression, I go and wake up all our units on our continent for (I use ctrl-shift-n choosing 'units' for this as below (and ctrl-shift-m to restore normal view after in case you don't remember))
The purpose of this is redistribution of units. Often some units are fortified in not-so-useful spots, so this maximizes unit usage. With more time to play, so its a good time to do this. I was also planning on drafting more units but hit return by accident too soon and went to the next turn.
IBT: France and India vs Russia. Thebes deposes us. The only good bit is that it shrinks the city 6 size points after we take it back to size 5.
1465 AD: Retake and Thebes and regain the Pyramids. Attack and capture size 16 Tadmekket. Bombard and capture Elephantine. Lost an Elite cav vs an injured Cav.
We have another very tricky defense situation again where everything is railed and there are many squares to deal with. I use the following strategy this time:
If I can draw a line through squares that are:
1) water (endpoints are sea) or
2) in our territory or
3) roadless or
4) Occupied by a strong force
then it takes 2 movement points to get past, one to move in and one to move out. This gives a cavalry one movement point left which cannot take a non-front line city. For a second blocking line it can only move in. [Edit: I forgot to mention that if the two lines are adjacent you can move out the second blocking square ( 1) move in first, 2) move in second and out of first, 3) move out of second) ]
So in the picture below the light blue line is the first line taking 2 to get through. Any square behind the darker blue line is safe as well as towns not on the borders. Anything in the middle area or on the edge of our territory can be attacked and has to be well defended. This greatly simplifies knowing what to defend and frees up the towns behind the line from needing heavy defense. For the picture I used the delete key to remove the UI elements to get the full screen for the picture and made it less cluttered using the ctrl-shift-n - its easier to find the paths. Fortunately, the AI moves before a flip so a flipped city doesn't allow the AI in further. A captured city IS a risk allowing the AI through.
For the picture it is before I added defenders to Artillery and Worker.
Armies are mostly healing or heading to a city to heal. I send the Artillery forward for next turn splitting between several city
Work on suppression and do some drafting.
IBT: Landing of a single Aztec in Japan Egypt is starting to use Destroyers to bombard us. We lose a conscript Infantry that I mis-clicked with. Also a single attack on our city.
We have to renegotiate for Ivory and its expensive for us. We have no tech to trade, so I thrown in 55 gtp with wines to get it.
No units show up otherwise to kill Maybe our cities are too well guarded. I would like work on more leaders.
1470 AD: Starting with the islands we use ship bombardment and then capture Herat from Persia. Going for Wagga Wagga we get a leader and capture the city. Infantry army take out Kiwinana on the same island. There are some logistic issues (no unit but can't rush due to resistance) with Hyderabad so I need a transport to deal with it. There are Egyptians all over the island but no Egyptian towns and one more Indian city. So the forces will be passifying the island in the meantime
Kill off the Aztec unit on the island. No need to get anything from mainland.
We also got a leader which we have to bring back to the mainland...
For the main battle against Egypt:
Red-line Giza with Artillery. Use an Army and Elite Cavalry gaining us another leader (leader luck has been VERY good this turnset) Giza has Leonardo's Workshop but we don't have much in the way of upgrades.
Bombard and capture Buto using more Elite Cav.
Red-line Sokoto and attack it with the Remaining Elite and some Veteran Cavalry losing one Veteran one. Can also attack a Babylon town of Awlil. I notice that some of the next cities have 0 or 1 border expansions which is great as it allows us to use the Artillery. I lose another Vet Cav on awlil, Final town we sent Artillery against is Edfu which we bombard and capture with Cavalry without loss.
Timbuktu (Egypt) is now reachable by artillery so I bombard and capture it. I do the same thing for Gao - size 12 Babylon capital with no border expansion. I follow with Tendirma which is similar. I even use the sword army for the first time on attack since it can reach. Katsina is next and easily falls to a Cavalry Army. Kano uses the first full hit point army and we have reached the West Coast of Africa, Egyptian town of Abydos is next. It has culture so it takes 2 armies but it frees up unused Artillery. I can bombard and Capture Kukiya and finally Busa. Hombori (Bablyon) is range 2 and takes 2 armies
I use a Combat Settler to get closer to Byblos the last big city in North Africa. Byblos gets us Copernicus and it takes us 3 Armies to capture kill their 4 units. Finally I capture Segu to the Southwest. This leaves one final Cavalry army for cutting roads and setting up defense plus a few others with low movement to block access.
First I isolate Zanqum the only remaining northern city.
Then I work on the southern lines. The picture method actually worked pretty well at seeing where the issues are so I did it again. Orange is where the two lines touch and you can actually pass over the second line. Also units allow both lines to go through the square. (this is before moving the infantry to defend cities and such)
I also do try to protect the vulnerable units in case the enemy breaks through the lines. My hope though is that our stacks won't get attacked at all.
I also place a few outposts. to bring squares into visibility - especially coastal ones. If units land there it can wreak havoc. Drafted a few towns that looked good for units.
I will show a before and after picture because rarely do I have the opportunity to utilize the units so well. If you look at the 1465 you can see the AI does not have border expansions in the west which allowed for this progress they must have recently switched civs.
I could tell I was getting a bit tired because this picture shows 3 (fairly obvious) mistakes I made. Sadly, this picture is the final one befire hitting return. I stopped after this for the night.
I also use the forest chop to rush resisting workers in a few towns and rushed a few universities as our cash reserves are good.
IBT: There are some attacks by Egypt. Some Cavalry I think I forgot to move and an infantry with Cav underneath and one town. We lose an infantry and 3 Cav and kill several Egyptian Cavalry (6?). Well next line will be a good bit shorter and easier to deal with. A single Cavalry lands on our main island.
1475 AD: Islands I kill a Rifle on the Indian island. All but one army are healing or being transported.
For Egypt, I capture Koumbi Saleh first which allows us to Bombard and Capture the two towns to the west, Diara and Agadez. Zariqum the town still to the North only has 2 defenders so we are able to capture it with the Army that moved towards it last turn. That is the last town on Africa itself that is Babylon, though there are 4 African islands that are Babalonian. Next we capture Gwandu using our Armies and now own the horn of Africa and can start attacking south.
An attack settler is called for next as it will allow us to reach 2 more towns with Artillery. We disband Buto and build Banana farm. We then Bombard and Capture New Elephantine which allows us to Bombard and Capture El-Ashmunein and then Umfolozi
The second town we got closer to is Nioro which we Bombard and Capture, which in turn allows us to bombard and capture New Ulundi and then Kangaba.
I really wanted to conguer Asyut for a better front but we were already stetched getting this.
Kill the Landing and the rest of the red-lined enemies but no leader from our elite victories.
The following picture has zero to do with the game so I'll hide it. I accidentally loaded it and it was (sorta) on topic. The defense displayed caused several vastly superior civs to leave us alone for a vital period of time. I think we opened the lines to lure units and then closed again.
Spoiler :
IBT: Attacks on an Infantry fail with 3 Cavalry (by Egypt) Sokoto deposes us to Egypt. It costs an Elite* Cavalry that was healing/suppressing resistance. El-Amama, Abydos also deposes us losing nothing (the suppressor units were pretending to be a wall I think. Kwinana deposes us to Australia who never owned the town. They have several blocks bordering us. I am glad I moved out the army. I was tempted to let it heal faster in the town. We lose no units, but can't take the town back.
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
I figured major progress was coming on this turn, but that looks spectacular.
Africa being flat, unexpanded, and unforested undoubtedly helped, but also the extra armies and the fact that we're no longer extremely short of units is big too. I could feel myself switching from unit preservation mode to a more risk acceptable position as it went on.
Still, pretty amazing stuff.
Africa being flat, unexpanded, and unforested undoubtedly helped, but also the extra armies and the fact that we're no longer extremely short of units is big too. I could feel myself switching from unit preservation mode to a more risk acceptable position as it went on.
Still, pretty amazing stuff.
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Resistance is futile - you will become Chinese WOW - I didn't expect to go this far on one turn set (that still isn't done)
Does look like we need a quiet set after your turn. If nothing else, we can concentrate on getting those African cities broken on resistors.
Ya, once our front lines are short again, we will free up units to suppress for this. The next player could also deal with the rest of Siberia for a small war if they were inclined.
Zulu will give us gpt for old tech so I think we should leave them alone for now.
At this point its almost better if cities do flip with no units in it because it reduces the size making the next flip less likely. What is irksome is when a small city flips.
My usual goal for culture is to get to 1/2 the leader or more. That way 2 units in a city will eliminate flips completely for a single non-resisting foreign citizen (what we have after the town is starved down). Right now we would need 4 units each which is impossible. We are doing better in culture. I think we have grown 3k culture while Egypt grew 1k over the 7 turns play, and we are definitely more than 1/4 and heading for 1/3.
Starting the next 3 turns now. Not sure if I will finish today or maybe Monday.
Zulu will give us gpt for old tech so I think we should leave them alone for now.
At this point its almost better if cities do flip with no units in it because it reduces the size making the next flip less likely. What is irksome is when a small city flips.
My usual goal for culture is to get to 1/2 the leader or more. That way 2 units in a city will eliminate flips completely for a single non-resisting foreign citizen (what we have after the town is starved down). Right now we would need 4 units each which is impossible. We are doing better in culture. I think we have grown 3k culture while Egypt grew 1k over the 7 turns play, and we are definitely more than 1/4 and heading for 1/3.
Starting the next 3 turns now. Not sure if I will finish today or maybe Monday.
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
Yeah, I agree on leaving the Zulu alone, which is why I made peace with them. They are so far behind as to be a total non threat we can kill with tanks whenever the mood strikes. We could probably even leave Russia alone for a long, long time. They are not very big and they are giving us heaps of gpt right now. Unless something's changed dramatically from the end of my round, I'd say the priorities are:
1) Wipe Egypt and Babylon from the non Siberian mainland
2) Collect all the islands not owned by us or Australia in the "Australian Corridor"
3) Kill Germany and France
I think the Siberian campaign is non demanding enough to be fought during the same time those are going on. We do want Germany to go away before tanks. After those things, we can Kill Zulu and Russia, and can even move towards Greenland if needed. That's a fairly sizable :island" that should be easy pickings by that time.
1) Wipe Egypt and Babylon from the non Siberian mainland
2) Collect all the islands not owned by us or Australia in the "Australian Corridor"
3) Kill Germany and France
I think the Siberian campaign is non demanding enough to be fought during the same time those are going on. We do want Germany to go away before tanks. After those things, we can Kill Zulu and Russia, and can even move towards Greenland if needed. That's a fairly sizable :island" that should be easy pickings by that time.
Heres a question you can think on as I play the last turn.
I went to take a Babylon city on a 3 tile island and all 3 tiles were occupied with Civs at peace with each other.
We could wait for marines, never kill Babylon off, OR I checked and we can get the city for peace (and probably one or two more).
We would have to live with any flips we get. Babylon the key city with Sun Tzu is now size 1 so I think 4 units would be safe from a flip for the 10 turns - we should check this if they have more culture in the area (true) it might affect the unit count - or just the final chance to flip. We might want to replace cities that a flip would be very inconvenient. 8 troops would definitely be safe.
So do we make peace for 20 turns for the island?
Or drive the Babylons to that island only and live with the possibility of flips.
Or just wait for 3 more techs.
I went to take a Babylon city on a 3 tile island and all 3 tiles were occupied with Civs at peace with each other.
We could wait for marines, never kill Babylon off, OR I checked and we can get the city for peace (and probably one or two more).
We would have to live with any flips we get. Babylon the key city with Sun Tzu is now size 1 so I think 4 units would be safe from a flip for the 10 turns - we should check this if they have more culture in the area (true) it might affect the unit count - or just the final chance to flip. We might want to replace cities that a flip would be very inconvenient. 8 troops would definitely be safe.
So do we make peace for 20 turns for the island?
Or drive the Babylons to that island only and live with the possibility of flips.
Or just wait for 3 more techs.
The civs are all ones we don't want to ally for 20 turns either. I think it was France, Babylon and Egypt. France would be the best candidate if we did this. However, the units were mostly defensive so there is a chance it wouldn't work anyway. Best option would be to bombard the Egyptian Rifle to 1 hp and ally France against them, but once they kill it they may just stop moving while taking up both squares.
Babylon flip chances now may be infrequent enough to just live with them not being destroyed. The ability to take back a flipped city may be too important.
So I am not really sure. Nineveh seems likely to flip at some point.
Babylon flip chances now may be infrequent enough to just live with them not being destroyed. The ability to take back a flipped city may be too important.
So I am not really sure. Nineveh seems likely to flip at some point.
1480 AD: Look into island safety. If a ship can go from one port to another in one turn it is not ship chaining -- more an extension of the rail system. A unit can then go between rails and transport hops which is ideal for close islands. Once I get it set up, I will provide details.
Notice that Egypt has Flight. We steal safely which succceeds costing 6730 gold. Argentina has money to buy it so we sell it to them for 10690.
Babylon now has Infantry Hindana is right on top of Rubber so this isn't odd.
Some planning:
There are 4 civs we want to eliminate and with Africa winding down, its time to start planning and rushing units to do so.
These are Egypt, Babylon, Persia, India.
Egypt has 9 cities.
3 are in Africa and will be gone next turn
1 is still in Siberia easy to get to.
1 is on an Island in the meditteranian. I can rush a transport to get to it.
1 is ireland. Can be reached in 3 turns from Kano in Africa with a transport so it needs defense. City is size 12 so more than just an army would help - 2 transports and a destroyer then?
1 is an island to the Northeast of Australia. One of the Conquering Armies is almost to it.
1 is an island mostly East slightly Sourth of Australia.
1 is on the southern tip of Greenland.
To meet our goal of eliminating Egypt the main island team has to kill 2 island cities and a new one launched from africa has to go to Ireland and Greenland. One transport for the meditaranian.
Babylon we can kill 8 cities in Siberia and Europe leaving 4 off African coast and one more in northmost Russia. We have a force already headed for Madagascar and the force for Ireland can handle Babylon ones there.. Rushed a transport to get the one North of Russia, though we could have tried cutting through there lands.
Persia has 2 in Siberia and an Island way south of Australia with 2. The last is right in the middle of Russia.
India is now entirely on Islands near Australia with 6 cities.
I will start setting these with the goal of knocking them out by the next player and assuring no more flips.
I am increasing food a good bit to get towns bigger or rush Settlers or draft. We will not want to stay this way.
Military Operations for the islands:
We bombard a Rifle with 3 Artillery. It still has 2 hp so we yet attack - its on a mountain. Armies landed are healing. Other armies are in transit.
Egyptian Conquests:
First we take back 3 flipped towns. Abydos and Sokoto can be hit by Artillery. El Amama requires an Army.
Aysut which i wanted to conquer last time is next. Our second army takes 10 hp killing a guerilla, so 3 Armies are required. The final army also drops 7 hp, so I use a regular Cav to take out a final Cav and the city is ours.
The next city is 3 away. Decide to make it two away (cav get 2 attacks) by making a new town one closer. Abandon Aysut and found Wine Hills. That will be one less flip risk. Additionally while it takes 2 to get to the city, Artillery can bombard it because the shortest route is blocked by a mountain. The towns behind the mountains are all pretty close so capturing one can mean bombardment for the next.
Here is a picture:
Towns had 3-4 Rifle/Guerilla units and a Cavalry on average.
We bombard and capture Busirus losing one Vet Cavalry. Heiraconopolis is bombarded and captured by Cavalry and gaining a leader which becomes an army. We don't have enough cavalry un-moved or un-injured to fill the army yet. The new Elite* goes in the fortified Army waiting for next turn.
I haven't mentioned this but I am using an Army with 1 movement point left to see the cities I bombard and know when they are red-lined. Bombard and attack Lisht. I include the Speed 2 Sword and Infantry armies to take out the red-lined rifles and a Cavalry Army. Finally, we Bombard and Capture Mendes, with a Cavalry Army and a found Elite* Cavalry.
Now Ergili has NO border expansion which is great for us. Army and Artillery head over to the selected square below to continue our conquest. Ergili is weakly defended with a Rifle and Guerilla and falls easily after bombardment. This allows us to Bombard and Capture Pithom as well.
Anthribis is next as it will lead to a very good front line in the east. We are finally going to be next to the Zulu - a current trading partner.
The first Army takes 9 hits against the first rifle, so I grab another Army and take out 2 more defenders. This puts a Cavalry on top. The 9 point Army I didn't want to attack the rifle can kill the Cavalry ok, so I switch back to him and take out a Cavalry.
We have a final healthy army to use and Egypt has 4 cities left. There is Rubber there that is likely unconnected (I got the Zulu map in a recent trade), but is a concern. The lack of recent Egyptian units vs a correct defensive line is very likely explained by them going after the Zulu instead - they are at war with each other and the last 4 towns are clearly recent acquisitions.
I can bombard all 3 towns but won't have the units to take them. Amatikulu looks like it would lead to the best defensive line, and I can move to attack it and look at the Rubber as well:
I start the exciting epic quest called 'Search for unmoved Artillery'. Bombard the city. It has 2 rifles and a Cav which falls easily to my healthy Army.
I also use Artillery against Egyptian Destroyers of which I see 4. There is a coastal square I cannot see so another Outpost so I can see landings.
Finally our Attack force toward Madagascar I launched early on makes it there.
Start the task of adjusting the suppression with the units freed up. It will be even more clear after next turn.
IBT: France and Babylon go for Peace.
Australia boots us after that city flipped to them. My army next to the city was healing and so I didn't move it..
Babylon is also bombarding us
Koumbi Saleh deposes us and we lose supressing infantry.
1485 AD: Recapture Koumbi Saleh.
Bombard and Capture Umata, Swazi, and Badapi (which I think switched hands twice in the IBT) with Elite Cavalry and get a leader. Each are Zulu citizens so a flip wouldn't be recoverable. I rush an immediate Library to push back Zulu squares and will starve to 1. They have a bit less than twice our Culture so 2 units will mean no flips once we own all our 20 squares. There were no resisters. Egypt has been removed from Africa
Our rushed transport gets an army next to New Alexandria Note that it is within Artillery bombard distance.
Kano got a Destroyer and will get a Transport next turn. There is Adab very close to us in bombard distance and Taghaza which isn't. That means I can take out Adab with one transport, but am thinking of waiting for a second Transport to carry Artillery for Taghaza.
On Madagascar we Bombard and Capture Sippar with an Infantry Army. Looks like Zulu might have been going for it too as they have 3 Cavalry here. Zulu have one city on the island and the final is Babylon.
Autodestroy New Daca from Babylon. Going after cities in Siberia. Start a rail through Russia to the towns enveloped by then.
IBT: Deposed by Athribis. Just boat bombardment.
1490 AD:
Ok, I can't land on the Babylon island without Marines. All 3 squares are occupied.
They will trade peace and give us the Island. We should discuss this.
New Alexandria (Egypt) in the middle of the Mediteranean is Destroyed.
Siberian Campaign:
I raze Darish Kabir, the Persian town in the midddle of Russia.
Destroy Cherbourg a Babylon town in the Russian North.
Capture Salzburg from Germany to the west.
Capture Altin Tepe from Babylon (guarded by a single red-lined Cavalry)
Capture Bonn from Germany to the north.
Attack Brest owned by France but we don't have the movement to take it.
Island Campaign:
In New Memphis in the midddle of the ocean we killed 2 Rifles and a Cavalry, but now have too few hp so we use the last movement point to get on the boat for healing. From past experience its a bad idea to attack with the last movement point for a single Army vs an Island and in this case we have few enough hp to possibly lose against a Cavalry. Note that the Infantry that was with it got 'used up' on another island.
Capture Kalgoorlie from India
Start of Europe Campaign:
There are a few cities we can take to set up our attack on Europe by clearing out cities near the Black Sea.
Capture
Athens is destroyed. That is pretty rare, a starting capitol auto-destroys. I guess the Civ that started with it has to be Eliminated and the new owners have no culture. I have no idea why it was size 1. It hasn't grown for a while.
Sparta and Munich are captured from Germany. The non-Russian border remains short.
I realize an army has 0 movement in a town that might flip so I replace Uruk with one of our own.
I do another drafting round of pretty much every city to cover all the Egyptian cities.
Notes:
Island Transit system:
I think we should set things up so that we can reach all our islands by swapping at each town. The following is the system.
On island attacks I think I made the mistake of not including enough Infantry to cover the cities. We could use the above transit system and rush a transport to fix this.
We have to decide what to do about Babylon. I think taking cities until we can trade peace for all cities but the capitol( see map below) or just living with the flips would work. Trade for all the cities may be next turn or two as 5 cities are in Siberia.
Mass Production is the only tech the lead AI can research now - however there is only one non-damaged tech leader - Argentina. Other civs like Russia might have started it... Or could be researching one of the others that are already known. Even Egypt could be still researching Ironclads.
I made a rail path into Russia last turn to get to the cities in their territory. They units covering the rail can be used elsewhere next turn. I just didn't want it blocked. We could abandon the city up there as defending it won't be possible after war with Russia starts some time in the future.
I noticed the Zulu are using our rails now we are next to them.
Egypt has 4 cities left - I just noticed New Thebes in Greenland (the hardest to reach) is now Russian.
India has 5 cities left.
Persia has 3 cities left - one in Siberia and the last 2 are on a southern-most island near Australia.
Babylon has 8 - five in Siberia
Important: I have the cities maximized for growth. This is because drafting has reduced our cities enough they need fast growth. Many will grow in 2 turns so if we do this for 8 turns that is 4 size points. We will want to stop it at some point, but I think some growth right now will help us. We currently have enough units with the last draft, but will want more as we conquer more. After growth we should have more shields due to the size increase. I think we have enough forces in our armies.
Notice that Egypt has Flight. We steal safely which succceeds costing 6730 gold. Argentina has money to buy it so we sell it to them for 10690.
Babylon now has Infantry Hindana is right on top of Rubber so this isn't odd.
Some planning:
There are 4 civs we want to eliminate and with Africa winding down, its time to start planning and rushing units to do so.
These are Egypt, Babylon, Persia, India.
Egypt has 9 cities.
3 are in Africa and will be gone next turn
1 is still in Siberia easy to get to.
1 is on an Island in the meditteranian. I can rush a transport to get to it.
1 is ireland. Can be reached in 3 turns from Kano in Africa with a transport so it needs defense. City is size 12 so more than just an army would help - 2 transports and a destroyer then?
1 is an island to the Northeast of Australia. One of the Conquering Armies is almost to it.
1 is an island mostly East slightly Sourth of Australia.
1 is on the southern tip of Greenland.
To meet our goal of eliminating Egypt the main island team has to kill 2 island cities and a new one launched from africa has to go to Ireland and Greenland. One transport for the meditaranian.
Babylon we can kill 8 cities in Siberia and Europe leaving 4 off African coast and one more in northmost Russia. We have a force already headed for Madagascar and the force for Ireland can handle Babylon ones there.. Rushed a transport to get the one North of Russia, though we could have tried cutting through there lands.
Persia has 2 in Siberia and an Island way south of Australia with 2. The last is right in the middle of Russia.
India is now entirely on Islands near Australia with 6 cities.
I will start setting these with the goal of knocking them out by the next player and assuring no more flips.
I am increasing food a good bit to get towns bigger or rush Settlers or draft. We will not want to stay this way.
Military Operations for the islands:
We bombard a Rifle with 3 Artillery. It still has 2 hp so we yet attack - its on a mountain. Armies landed are healing. Other armies are in transit.
Egyptian Conquests:
First we take back 3 flipped towns. Abydos and Sokoto can be hit by Artillery. El Amama requires an Army.
Aysut which i wanted to conquer last time is next. Our second army takes 10 hp killing a guerilla, so 3 Armies are required. The final army also drops 7 hp, so I use a regular Cav to take out a final Cav and the city is ours.
The next city is 3 away. Decide to make it two away (cav get 2 attacks) by making a new town one closer. Abandon Aysut and found Wine Hills. That will be one less flip risk. Additionally while it takes 2 to get to the city, Artillery can bombard it because the shortest route is blocked by a mountain. The towns behind the mountains are all pretty close so capturing one can mean bombardment for the next.
Here is a picture:
Towns had 3-4 Rifle/Guerilla units and a Cavalry on average.
We bombard and capture Busirus losing one Vet Cavalry. Heiraconopolis is bombarded and captured by Cavalry and gaining a leader which becomes an army. We don't have enough cavalry un-moved or un-injured to fill the army yet. The new Elite* goes in the fortified Army waiting for next turn.
I haven't mentioned this but I am using an Army with 1 movement point left to see the cities I bombard and know when they are red-lined. Bombard and attack Lisht. I include the Speed 2 Sword and Infantry armies to take out the red-lined rifles and a Cavalry Army. Finally, we Bombard and Capture Mendes, with a Cavalry Army and a found Elite* Cavalry.
Now Ergili has NO border expansion which is great for us. Army and Artillery head over to the selected square below to continue our conquest. Ergili is weakly defended with a Rifle and Guerilla and falls easily after bombardment. This allows us to Bombard and Capture Pithom as well.
Anthribis is next as it will lead to a very good front line in the east. We are finally going to be next to the Zulu - a current trading partner.
The first Army takes 9 hits against the first rifle, so I grab another Army and take out 2 more defenders. This puts a Cavalry on top. The 9 point Army I didn't want to attack the rifle can kill the Cavalry ok, so I switch back to him and take out a Cavalry.
We have a final healthy army to use and Egypt has 4 cities left. There is Rubber there that is likely unconnected (I got the Zulu map in a recent trade), but is a concern. The lack of recent Egyptian units vs a correct defensive line is very likely explained by them going after the Zulu instead - they are at war with each other and the last 4 towns are clearly recent acquisitions.
I can bombard all 3 towns but won't have the units to take them. Amatikulu looks like it would lead to the best defensive line, and I can move to attack it and look at the Rubber as well:
I start the exciting epic quest called 'Search for unmoved Artillery'. Bombard the city. It has 2 rifles and a Cav which falls easily to my healthy Army.
I also use Artillery against Egyptian Destroyers of which I see 4. There is a coastal square I cannot see so another Outpost so I can see landings.
Finally our Attack force toward Madagascar I launched early on makes it there.
Start the task of adjusting the suppression with the units freed up. It will be even more clear after next turn.
IBT: France and Babylon go for Peace.
Australia boots us after that city flipped to them. My army next to the city was healing and so I didn't move it..
Babylon is also bombarding us
Koumbi Saleh deposes us and we lose supressing infantry.
1485 AD: Recapture Koumbi Saleh.
Bombard and Capture Umata, Swazi, and Badapi (which I think switched hands twice in the IBT) with Elite Cavalry and get a leader. Each are Zulu citizens so a flip wouldn't be recoverable. I rush an immediate Library to push back Zulu squares and will starve to 1. They have a bit less than twice our Culture so 2 units will mean no flips once we own all our 20 squares. There were no resisters. Egypt has been removed from Africa
Our rushed transport gets an army next to New Alexandria Note that it is within Artillery bombard distance.
Kano got a Destroyer and will get a Transport next turn. There is Adab very close to us in bombard distance and Taghaza which isn't. That means I can take out Adab with one transport, but am thinking of waiting for a second Transport to carry Artillery for Taghaza.
On Madagascar we Bombard and Capture Sippar with an Infantry Army. Looks like Zulu might have been going for it too as they have 3 Cavalry here. Zulu have one city on the island and the final is Babylon.
Autodestroy New Daca from Babylon. Going after cities in Siberia. Start a rail through Russia to the towns enveloped by then.
IBT: Deposed by Athribis. Just boat bombardment.
1490 AD:
Ok, I can't land on the Babylon island without Marines. All 3 squares are occupied.
They will trade peace and give us the Island. We should discuss this.
New Alexandria (Egypt) in the middle of the Mediteranean is Destroyed.
Siberian Campaign:
I raze Darish Kabir, the Persian town in the midddle of Russia.
Destroy Cherbourg a Babylon town in the Russian North.
Capture Salzburg from Germany to the west.
Capture Altin Tepe from Babylon (guarded by a single red-lined Cavalry)
Capture Bonn from Germany to the north.
Attack Brest owned by France but we don't have the movement to take it.
Island Campaign:
In New Memphis in the midddle of the ocean we killed 2 Rifles and a Cavalry, but now have too few hp so we use the last movement point to get on the boat for healing. From past experience its a bad idea to attack with the last movement point for a single Army vs an Island and in this case we have few enough hp to possibly lose against a Cavalry. Note that the Infantry that was with it got 'used up' on another island.
Capture Kalgoorlie from India
Start of Europe Campaign:
There are a few cities we can take to set up our attack on Europe by clearing out cities near the Black Sea.
Capture
Athens is destroyed. That is pretty rare, a starting capitol auto-destroys. I guess the Civ that started with it has to be Eliminated and the new owners have no culture. I have no idea why it was size 1. It hasn't grown for a while.
Sparta and Munich are captured from Germany. The non-Russian border remains short.
I realize an army has 0 movement in a town that might flip so I replace Uruk with one of our own.
I do another drafting round of pretty much every city to cover all the Egyptian cities.
Notes:
Island Transit system:
I think we should set things up so that we can reach all our islands by swapping at each town. The following is the system.
On island attacks I think I made the mistake of not including enough Infantry to cover the cities. We could use the above transit system and rush a transport to fix this.
We have to decide what to do about Babylon. I think taking cities until we can trade peace for all cities but the capitol( see map below) or just living with the flips would work. Trade for all the cities may be next turn or two as 5 cities are in Siberia.
Mass Production is the only tech the lead AI can research now - however there is only one non-damaged tech leader - Argentina. Other civs like Russia might have started it... Or could be researching one of the others that are already known. Even Egypt could be still researching Ironclads.
I made a rail path into Russia last turn to get to the cities in their territory. They units covering the rail can be used elsewhere next turn. I just didn't want it blocked. We could abandon the city up there as defending it won't be possible after war with Russia starts some time in the future.
I noticed the Zulu are using our rails now we are next to them.
Egypt has 4 cities left - I just noticed New Thebes in Greenland (the hardest to reach) is now Russian.
India has 5 cities left.
Persia has 3 cities left - one in Siberia and the last 2 are on a southern-most island near Australia.
Babylon has 8 - five in Siberia
Important: I have the cities maximized for growth. This is because drafting has reduced our cities enough they need fast growth. Many will grow in 2 turns so if we do this for 8 turns that is 4 size points. We will want to stop it at some point, but I think some growth right now will help us. We currently have enough units with the last draft, but will want more as we conquer more. After growth we should have more shields due to the size increase. I think we have enough forces in our armies.
