LK147 - world map, China

Culture isn't going to be a problem. Australia is the leader at only 69k, and Argentina and Iroquois are both at nearly 50k. Russia has 58k.

 

Starting to play, and just trying to consolidate our troops is turning into a time suck. With so many wars in a row there are scattered all over the place.

 

After looking at the game a bit I am not sure if we need tanks. The front is a nightmare, but I don't think we need tanks to beat Russia. Right now a large percentage of land is unclaimed. Cash to rush culture buildings will be just as effective as better military. We have an absurd amount of unclaimed tiles in Africa.

Any comments?

 

My guess is that it won't matter either way. Go ahead and rush what you want to rush for border expansions - if you can do it and maintain research, you might as well as we can use the tanks even at the end. If rushing means that we don't research then that is fine as well - getting all the land is more important than the tanks at the end.

I don't think it worth rushing military units as the amount of advancement is dependent on the armies and not so much the non-army units. Tanks seem more valuable at the end than more Cavalry.

 

I never really thought we needed tanks at all with like 30 cav armies, a zillion artillery, and the tech for bombers, which is part of why I would have just stole us up to tanks if necessary, with an eye to cash rushing temples. Now, we can surely do the plant and chop thing, which is fine, and technically correct, but it's a lot of work

It wasn't worth arguing over, though, because I figure we're in a no lose situation, now we're just trying to shave a turn or three off the finish time.

 

Either way is fine with me. I agree that we don't need tanks, but they might make things easier as we go overseas. Tanks can be airlifted, but I don't think armies can.

As our big deal with Russia expires, our income is going to drop drastically. Stopping research would let us continue to rush stuff.

The Iroquois do have some bombers, so if we move along to them next we'll have to deal with attacks on our armies.

 

1540 AD (0)
We are at 41.3% tiles with a lot of open spots in Asia.

I bring up Mapstat, and it only list 8 civs. The map has been well crunched.
The war vs. Russia is really going to be ugly. I hate long complex fronts, but taking out Germany has made the front a mess!
I need to get all the workers away from the Russia borders, and rails in a lot of key tiles.
I shift a lot of workers down to South Africa where I can plant forest.
I sign peace with the Aztecs. This war is useless now that we got the cities in Siberia.
During city review I like all the engineers hired to build culture buildings.
(IT) I laugh watching Australian bombers hitting the last Persian city.
I very much enjoy the border expansion messages and resistance has ended messages.
We are up to 41.7%


1545 AD (1)
We capture Ura Tyube. Scratch Persia from the game.
New Bombay is auto-razed. India is also dead.

I am working on recovering as many armies as possible from islands. I've figured out the best way to deal with Russia is a turn 1 crippling attack taking multiple cities at once.

I am starting to draft our hopeless corrupt cities just to disband the units in cities to speed up temples / libraries.
(IT) We are up to 41.9%


1550 AD (2)
Junk 1 and Junk 2 are built in Africa to secure some tiles that are to far from other cities.

I ship Australia mass production for $540 and $529 / turn.

You know you're playing a world map game in later turns when you save 1/2 way through a turn for sleep.
You know the domination push is on when you join a native worker into a city just so you can draft to disband for shields.
(IT) We get booted by the Iroquois.
We are up to 42.2%. It is slow, but I continue to see the percentage go up just from border expansions.


My next play session will be Sunday night / Monday night. Next week should see the Russian war.

 

1555 AD (3)
Space Filler is built in Scandinavia. Junk 3 is built in Africa.

The big cash deal with Russia is over. I still have too many workers by Russia, so I will wait a bit.
(IT) We are up to 42.5%


1560 AD (4)
I think I got all I can in Africa to get borders to expand. At this point, I think the best use of our native workers is to merge into corrupt crap to be able to draft.
(IT) Iroquois and Argentina sign peace.
We are up to 43.4%


Next turn I begin the war with Russia. I will see what I can get done by Thursday, and upload the save. I have NO spare time this upcoming weekend.

 

My status for my upcoming turn is this:

I will look at the save Friday night and try to digest what's going on. Any and all suggestions at this point will be appreciated.

I will have playing time on Saturday night, and all day Sunday, and time for one turn each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. No matter how many turns that comes to, I will upload the report and save on Thursday night next week, as we're leaving for 10 days in Florida next Friday. What this means is, it looks like Greebley will get to finish this off, or maybe even CKS, but probably not.

Also, since I'm unlikely to be around when LK148 launches, as I'll have limited internet access in Florida, I'd like to state that I have interest, as long as we're cool with the same relaxed pace of this game come the industrial era.

Lee probably already has something planned, but I'd like to suggest playing as the Greeks, as a final farewell before their disappearance into World Map oblivion.

 

1565 AD (5)
Australia is being a total jerk, and we simply can't trade for incense. I don't want Gems from the Iroquois, as we may be fighting them soon.
Our best use of airfields is to send conscripts to our islands to disband for shields. Some of the southern islands still have a decent number of tiles to claim.
Air bases are going up like crazy in Africa. This is going to become the fastest way to get workers / troops to the Asian islands along with Greenland when that invasion starts.

Junk 4 is formed in Africa.

The war horns sounds, and war begins with Russia.
We capture Chita, the oddball city in Siberia. We also get an artillery piece and 2 workers. Stupid size 1 city has a resistor.
We capture Vladimir with 4 resistors.
We capture St. Pete with the obsolete Great Wall and Oracle, 1 worker, and 5 artillery pieces. We gain 6 more resistors.
We capture Leipzig and I now have a land route to Scandinavia. We gain 2 more resistors.
We capture Pharsalos. We gain 3 more resistors.
The bombers hit Moscow, and then the army blitz begins. It is captured with the obsolete Knights Templar and 6 resistors. We gain the valuable Smith's Trading Company. With the number of markets we have it should be worth a lot of GPT. We really don't need more, but we gain 3 more workers.
This just gives us an opening to capture Novogorod with an army blitz. We gain yet 5 more resistors.
I find multiple stacks near Smolensk, and begin to bombard like crazy. Quite a few settlers were covered by units in this area. The city is captured, destroying some ships in port, gaining 2 workers, and yet more resistors. With the city captured, I can work on the rest of unit stacks. I have to draft another round of troops to finish the last units of, and give me more resistance squashers.
Knosos is captured. We only get stuck with one resistor.
Rostov is captured. We get another 5 resistors.
We have 2 armies drop to 1 HP by Yaroslav.
With 25 pop points, I simply burn the city to the ground. We get 3 artillery pieces, and a ton of workers.
Burnt Rubble is built to replace it.
Border Lock is built at the edge of Scandinavia.
At this point I've run out of any unit to attack with. I am still trying to rescue some armies trapped on islands.
(IT) We lost our ivory supply.
I don't want to trade with the Iroquois right now.
Peking riots and I get to scroll through our 250+ cities looking for rioters.

We know own 46% of the world.

 

It looks like I will be travelling next week for a business trip Sunday to Thursday. After that I have am going to a local sci fi convention for the (long as it includes Monday) weekend.

This effectively means I won't be able to play until the 22nd of January.

CKS,
You might as well grab the game after Todd finishes if the game isn't over by then and you have time to play on that weekend of the 19-20. It seems doubtful there will be a turn past yours, but if so I can grab it after the 22nd.

 

All right. If Todd doesn't finish it off, I'll see what I can do over the weekend, and pass anything left along to you on the 22nd.

 

Our land % is definitely moving up during my turn. We started at 41.3%, and are at 46% as of the last turn reported. The effect off all my work in Africa is just showing up. Map Stat shows pending border expansions and we will have a decent amount coming up.

This doesn't even count the effect of taking out Russia, and as resistance ends and all those new cities and we get border expansions.

We have a lot of libraries due in a handful of turns including some on the islands where we still have stray tiles to claim. Every tile helps during the domination push.

I suspect we still need more then taking out Russia to win, though we can see where we stand at the end of that war. It could be as simply as taking out the last of Greenland. Let us see the tile count at the end of my turn tonight.

I've been building a stack of settlers so that as we get closer to domination we may build cities for small blocks of tiles if needed. So far my filler cities have been for what looked like large blocks of tiles.

 

1565 AD (6)
Our army by Poiters kills one of the three infantry Russia dropped off. My infantry guard just arrived. Hopefully the city will hold.
Irkutsk is captured in Siberia. We get stuck with 4 resistors.
Desert Fish is built in Asia to fill in a gap.
Yekaterinburg is captured with 9 resistors and an artillery piece.
Vladivostok is captured with 8 resistors.
Krasnoyarsk is captured with 8 resistors and 1 worker.
(IT) We now control 48.1% land.


1565 AD (7)
Uliastay is captured with 4 resistors.
Perm is captured with 1 resistor. I've now found the area with the Russian infantry stacks went hiding.
(IT) Argentina and Venezuela sign peace.
We now control 49.2% land.


1570 AD (8)
Dijon is captured with one resistor.
Voronezh is captured with one resistor
Rouen is captured.
(IT) St. Petersburg flips on us.
We now control 50.4% land.


1575 AD (9)
Khabarovsk is captured with 2 artillery pieces.
Tver is captured with 5 resistors and an artillery piece.
St. Petersburg captured back.
Yakustk is captured with 3 resistors and a worker.


Summary:
I left a bunch of armies fortified so that Todd can decide their targets.
We still have the annoying island above Siberia with 2 Russian cities to deal with.
There is a fleet sitting by England when we are ready to move on Greenland.

All of the ships in the pacific should keep moving home. We will have a debate if Australia is a target, and having the fleet consolidated near my whaling wharf would help.

We are up to 50.5% in land.


ROSTER:
LKendter (just played)
Todd Marshall (up)
Greebley (skip to Jan 22)
CKS (on deck)

 

Sounds like you made good progress.

It still looks to me like we'll need more tiles than Greenland. All of Russia plus all unclaimed tiles still leaves us close to 200 tiles short of domination.

 

There are several options to debate for those last few hundred tiles:
Attack Australia - decent amount just in island cities
Iroquois - not sure how many tiles we can get from those islands above America
Venezuela - more of Greenland, and a foothold in South America.

 

Not an easy decision.
Australia has all its original units and would be tough (but might be easiest to reach).

How about the following. Start Rushing ships on the African Coast nearest central America and then go for Venezuela first. They are the only primitive civ left without Infantry. That gives a foothold in South America to take on Argentina when we have sufficient Armies moved over.

The more boats we have the sooner we could attack after dealing with Russia, so wherever we decide to attack first we should rush several boats per turn using drafting and disband + cash. We are close to tanks and can turn off research after we get them.

 

I know Australia has a healthy navy as I can't tell you how many carriers and battleships I saw animations for.

After your comments about the boats, I feel we want to make the next target decision before Todd starts playing. I like the backwards comment about Venezuela, and my vote is for war with them after Russia. The game is locked, so no rush for another war. I would at least want Russia off the mainland before starting this.
Venezuela has another advantage. They own some of the cities in Greenland, and IIRC we can lock a source of spices by taking there cities.

There are a ton of boats sitting above our island holdings near Australia. We can start moving them toward Africa ASAP. We will need to collect the transports in some of the island cities. Even the frigate stacks still give us ship / city bombard abilities.

I already have a small fleet by England to assist in the invasion of Greenland. Make sure that force includes a worker. We can plop our infantry army and the worker on the square and build an airbase to shutting more units over.

We will also need some rushed ships for that annoying island above Siberia. However, we can get in bomber range and should be able to pretty much wipe the troops before landing. After taking those cities we can ship a bunch of workers over via an airport to ASAP chop libraries in those cites.

In summary - my opinion:
Invade Greenland when mainland Russia under control, Venezuela after Russia, and move ships from Pacific to African coast.
We have enough time to invade, so we may want to build some ships in Asia in our cities that have decent shield output.

 

I hadn't really considered Venezuela before, but I like this plan.

 

I suggested Venezuela a while back, so you'll get no argument from me on that front.

I'm so exhausted from this vile week, I'm going straight to bed after supper tonite. I might have to work Sunday while we're closed to try to catch up. I have never been this far behind at any job ever. Not sure how many turns I'll be able to get in before we leave for Florida, and I'd consider asking a skip had Greebley not needed one also. Kind of silly double skipping in a 4 man game, especially this close to the end, and a swap wont help matters for either of us either... so I'll just get 5-6 turns in this week one way or another, and CKS can finish it off from there.