LK149 - WM, Indonesia

[Greebley]

We had no choice on the Indian attack. The only other alternative would have been to disband units until we reached cash equilibrium. Disbanding 30 units would not have been any better. We were at 120 gold and losing 35 a turn. I don't think running negative gold is really fair (i.e. I don't like to do it if at all possible). Our replacement of Kholphur with our own size 7 city makes almost any losses worthwhile. This is allowing us to still build units even now.

Punjab was unlucky, but we also wouldn't have had the city if we hadn't attacked, so I don't see that we lost a huge amount by the flip. We also got enough units into Bogor to keep it so far. In fact our attack on Ganges shows we were already on the offensive. And again if we weren't at war we would have had no chance of gaining Ganges compared to a chance that we failed at.

Note that we also wouldn't have had iron so we would be building only longbows.

If we hadn't had the money issues (and possibly loss of Iron) I would have likely waited a bit longer. I might have still kept Punjab even if I waited though and had similar issue when we got the unlucky flip. I do not replace every city I take.

 

[Mizar]

lurker's comment: had a look at the save, interesting situation!
hard times on the happy situation, low on production and ressources, thin on some fronts, the dreaded musket vs knight times...
It will be a great game and great read if you can pull a military win out of this, looking forward to it.

 

[Northern Pike]

View attachment 353228, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

700 (1): Even the Australians have caught up with us in tech, so we don't have anything to trade them for a renewed supply of ivory. Meanwhile the Sioux are industrial already. Being behind technologically is just part of a high-level game, but this is extreme.

We adjust our cities for the even worse luxury position. Most can cope, though Denpasar has to switch to a harbour build to avoid pop loss.

We retreat at Punjab and Ganges. I'm not going to make those attacks until we have substantial stacks that can survive some bad results.

We cut down the two Indian archers landed next to Semarang, but lose a regular spearman (2-1).

On the mainland, we advance on Jaipur. This force can do reconnaissance by trebuchet, so to speak, and only attack if the results are good.

The Indians attack and destroy our single spearman remaining adjacent to Punjab, though it costs them a longbowman (3-2). Fortunately we'd evacuated the workers beneath the spearman.

Bandung spearman --> spearman, Denpasar harbour --> courthouse.


710 (2): Our modest SoD moves adjacent to Jaipur; and it turns out that we arrive at the perfect time, as in the interturn the town comes under heavy attack by the Chinese.

Jakarta settler --> settler, Bekasi maceman --> maceman, Medan spearman --> spearman, Tangerang spearman --> maceman, Palembang spearman --> knight, Padang spearman --> marketplace.


720 (3): Chinese attacks have reduced the garrison to Jaipur to a musketman, a pikeman, a maceman, and a swordsman, all damaged. Our trebs redline the musketman and the pikeman, our attackers sustain no losses (7-2), and we take the town.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

Jaipur contains no improvements we can sell, though we capture a worker. We'll have to hold the city for two interturns, one with flip risk, before we can replace it with the settler we've been rushing north.

The Chinese have cavalry, so they're going to absolutely martyr the Indians if that war goes on much longer.

We set up a safe shot against a damaged Indian LB for our single elite unit, and:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

I think that's the first real piece of luck we've had in the game (8-2). Since there are so many unknowns in this situation and it's not obvious where we'll want the army to operate, I'll only load one unit into it to keep it galley-mobile for now.

The question arises now of whether we should change the nearly complete FP build in Surabaya to Heroic Epic, assuming we can get our army a quick victory. If we were fighting a normal war with the Indians--that is, with many of our units facing many of theirs--I'd certainly do it. But it looks as though the Chinese offensive against the Indians is going to cut us off completely from mainland India, and that introduces too many uncertainties, so I'll let the FP complete.

The Indians have sent a musketman from Punjab to pillage Semarang's improvements, and there's nothing we can prudently do about it. But that's one less unit in the town, so we reverse course and direct our attack units back in that direction.

The swordman on top of our stack in Jaipur redline-retreats an Indian Jumbo, after which we watch some Chinese-Indian violence from the sidelines.

Djokjakarta knight --> spearman.


730 (4): We move seven attack units next to Punjab, with two landing by sea.

Suharto founds the First Knight Army in Djokjakarta, and we load the first knight into it.

Surabaya FORBIDDEN PALACE --> knight, Medan spearman --> galley, Depok galley --> galley.

We make it through the interturn when Jaipur might flip.


740 (5): Punjab is a hill town held by two musketmen, and the attack with macemen and knights is a predictably ugly business, but eventually we storm it for the loss of a knight and a maceman (10-4). We raze the wretched place and gain a worker.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We abandon Jaipur and replace it with Samarinda on the same site. I consider moving the city slightly but no other location seems superior.

We push forward in India in the hope that we might poach Madras from the Chinese as we did Jaipur, but it's not likely.

Tangerang spearman --> spearman.


750 (6): We found Pekanbaru on the ruins of Punjab.

There's one Indian musketman--the pillager--left in the hills around Semarang. We somewhat luckily mace it down without loss (11-4).

Have we done one jungle burn in this game that's revealed BG? That's another respect in which our luck has been horrid.

Jakarta settler --> settler, Bandung spearman --> spearman, Bekasi maceman --> maceman, Makassar marketplace --> galley.


760 (7): We land seven units next to Indus, the second Indian city in the Philippines.

Our small strike force reaches Madras just in time to see the Chinese take it (in the next IT), as we expected. That ends our mainland offensive against India, practically speaking.

Ugh, the Indians appear to sneak reinforcements into Indus by sea.

We yield to a Chinese demand for 26 gold and our TM.

Medan galley--> galley, Djokjakarta spearman --> spearman.


770 (8): Our challenge here is to take Indus without using our vulnerable one-unit army, and then use the town to ship-chain the army to where it can get a safe first victory against the Indian longbowman, saving Batam in the process:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

Another unpleasant 4-4 attack costs us two macemen to dispose of two musketmen, but:

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We sink at least a caravel and a galley in port as we seize the city (15-6).

We load the First Knight Army onto one galley at Indus, ship-chain it to another so that it can reach Batam and overrun the Indian LB (16-6), then move it offshore into the first galley so that it can end its turn back in Indus suppressing resistance.

With an army victory to our credit we can start Heroic Epic, so we switch to that build in Surabaya.

We comply with a Mongol demand for 26 gold and our TM.

Palembang knight --> knight.


780 (9): We begin setting up our attack on Ganges.

Tangerang maceman--> maceman, Depok galley --> marketplace, Semarang aqueduct --> marketplace.


790 (10): We move eight units adjacent to Ganges, though four are swordsmen I hope we won’t have to use against musketmen.

Jakarta settler --> settler, Bandung spearman --> marketplace, Bekasi maceman --> trebuchet, Medan galley --> maceman, Djokjakarta spearman --> spearman.


800 (11): The Australians have a stack next to Ganges, including a settler, so it’s just as well we didn’t waste time there.

Our first two attacks on the hill town of Ganges are disastrous, as our macemen not only fail against the musketman on top of the Indian stack, but promote it. But then we win four straight battles against the musket, two spearmen, and a longbowman, with our only setback a redline-retreat by a knight, and capture the town with one attack to spare (19-8). We gain two workers.

 

[Northern Pike]

 

[Northern Pike]

We can’t raze Ganges, since the Australians have a settler in their stack and would replace the town before we could if we handled it that way. But by shipping a settler in we’re able to do an immediate abandon-and-replace, founding the native town of Tasikmalaya.

Our gpt have come back after twenty turns, so it’s time to look into the trade possibilities…and most civs won’t take our gpt for techs. The Americans, Babylonians, and Songhai will deal with us normally; we can’t tell about India and Australia; but from the other eleven surviving civs, it’s strictly “They would never accept such a deal”. I have no idea how this happened, and checking back I find that it was already the case at the beginning of my round.

In principle we still could still pull off a twofer or threefer with these partners, but just to add to the good news, our 158 gpt won’t buy us Astronomy, Banking, or Chemistry anyway. We can get close on Banking, but that’s the one we least want, since it would be a onefer.

One elite victory this round produced a Great Leader.

 

[LKendter]

It is in the queue for tonight.

UGG - sounds like our rep is toasted. Time to start self-research.

 

[Northern Pike]

Unity at last:

 

[Northern Pike]

We did some useful things this round, but China’s cutting us off from India puts our overall strategy in doubt. We can only advance in mainland Asia now by attacking China, which for some time to come will be sheer suicide. Should we consider attacking Australia, then? Obviously it’s a dead end, and just reorienting our forces in that direction would be quite a job. OTOH, we badly need to expand somewhere, and landing our army on Sydney’s narrow peninsula would give us an ideal tactical situation in which we could advance at our own pace and probably generate more armies. I’d like to know what experience LK has had of invading Australia early in the game.

If we’re interested in the Australian idea, we should send the galley which will soon complete in Makassar to scout their coastline.

Well, I won’t attempt a discussion of our terrible tech position when I don’t know the nuances of this mod. Is self-research at nearly-last-place prices practical on this map?

I’d suggest that we should found a city north of Denpasar at 1 on the screenshot, moving the nearby settler before we hit Enter and founding the town next turn. This will be a very cramped city, but they all contribute to support, and if we don’t settle there the Chinese will do it and add to the cultural pressure on Samarinda. Settling one tile nearer to Chinese Madras would give us a better city, but would probably involve too much risk of provoking China.

The four workers and two spearmen north of Depok can start moving to the Philippines next turn. There are plenty of galleys in the area.

Assuming we have no immediate offensive projects now, the Bangka off Tangerang carrying two macemen can land them on Borneo next turn, since our garrisons there are a bit light.

We have a settler in a galley off Surabaya, with which we can fairly quickly replace Indus, or very quickly if we set up a ship chain. Or if it seems safe to keep Indus, which is at size one, even better; I don’t have a utility which gives flip risk, so I can’t say.

It would be good to get a third unit into Semarang, so that its seventh citizen can work. But I don’t think we can cut Pekanbaru’s garrison down to one, in case the adjacent Immortal gets ideas.

The swordsman in Indus and the spearman just outside it should switch places next turn.

Remember that we’ll lose the ability to move our army around by galley if we put a second unit into it.

 

[LKendter]

Hard to say what makes sense at this point. When I can look at the game, I can say more.
Taking Australia would give us a monopoly on one luxury. I'm not sure how much we can leverage that.
We badly need more stuff to trade, even if it is just for short-term GPT.