LK150 - WM, Indonesia again

Off northwest Africa we bombard three Australian destroyers with artillery and sink them with destroyer attacks (67-0). Then it turns out that we have some uncommitted bombers, so we sink another two destroyers and two transports, sending five inf and a marine to the bottom in the transports (77-0).

We storm and auto-raze Toulouse, an Australian city in northern Italy garrisoned by two riflemen (79-0).

We spend most of our nest egg rushing transports, which I’m confident is the right use of the gold.

We ship a fair number of inf back to the cities on our home islands. This is tedious, but the Australians have marines so we have to be somewhat careful.

We found fourteen cities, for various reasons: to replace razed towns, to fill in areas unlikely to be covered by expansions before we win, and to give us convenient spots for rushing naval units.

I do a lot of MM, and assign enough extra scientists to bring our time to Computers down to four turns.

We sell some useless improvements in corrupt conquered towns for 610 gold, reducing our maintenance costs somewhat.


1535 (2): Mostly using rushed transports, we land strong forces on Madagascar (three Australian cites), Britain (two Russian cities), and Ceylon (one Australian city).

Off the coast of Africa we sink five redlined Australian ships—three battleships, a carrier, and a destroyer—with bombers, but lose a bomber (84-1).

Also off the African coast we bombard and sink an Argentinian destroyer and two American destroyers (86-1).

The Australians have landed a substantial force adjacent to Xinjian 2, our isolated city on Hawaii. We have an airfield next to the town, but barring excellent luck in the defense, this will only allow us to re-take the city after it falls. So, we build twenty-one airfields in the Scandinavian tundra—it was time for this anyway—and airlift a mixed force led by seven tanks to Hawaii.

We found Homage to a Government on the ruins of Coober Pedy in southern India.

We make our landings on Madagascar, Britain, and Ceylon.

Our inf and guerrilla defending Xinjian 2 on Hawaii put up a tremendous fight, slaying two cav, two guerrillas, and two inf, and only missing a miracle save by the last attacker’s last hit point (92-3). They even generate a Great Leader, though of course he’s lost when the town falls. Their sacrifice should make it easy for us to take back Xinjian 2, and then capture (Australian) New San Francisco as well.

Size-one Chelyabinsk flips to Russia. We lose a conscript inf.


1540 (3): We have work to do on four islands this turn, along with our attack on France. We start small, seizing Port Arthur on Ceylon from its garrison of three inf and a tank and wrecking a fighter on the ground (97-3).

We sell Port Arthur’s improvements for 160 gold and replace it with MCMXIV.

Our campaign on Madagascar begins from this position:
 
We found the tactical towns of Mr Bleaney and Self’s the Man.

We brew up an Australian tank near Mr Bleaney (98-3).

We capture New Intombe, held by two inf and a tank, and destroy a fighter on the ground, losing a tank (102-4). We gain our second (but first surviving) Great Leader of the round, who rushes a tank army.

We take New Isandhlwana, defended by a TOW inf and two inf, and wreck a fighter on the ground (106-4).
 
We storm New Hlobane, garrisoned by two inf and another helpless fighter, and Madagascar is ours (109-4). We install the Lemur Liberation Front as our puppet government. ;)

We replace New Is and New Hlo with Wild Oats and No Road, after selling their improvements (all in New Is, actually) for 142 gold.

The new Madagascar:
 
We hunt down another three Australian vessels—a battleship, a carrier, and a cruiser—off Nigeria (112-4).

We re-seize Chelyabinsk, held by a TOW (113-4).

On Hawaii we recapture Xinjian 2 easily from a single redlined inf, then sweep to the outskirts of New San Francisco smiting two cav and an archer [!] en route (117-4).
 
The situation in England is odd, with undeveloped wasteland where London should be:
 
We found the tactical town of Aubade south of Murmansk.

We take Murmansk, held by three TOW and an inf (121-4).

We storm Chita, defended by a TOW and an inf, and sink a transport in harbour (124-4).
 
Our incense deal with France has expired, so we plant a spy in Paris to gain a little extra information (67 gold), then declare war.
 
It’s frustrating that we won’t be able to conquer the French in one turn, when they only have six cities, but there’s no way past the Pyrenees to their Spanish holdings without tricks we consider exploitative (bubble-chambering, a combat settler positioned during peace). If Paris were one tile closer to the mountains we could do it, but not as things are.

We seize Rheims, garrisoned by three riflemen (127-4).

We capture Marseilles, held by six riflemen. We capture a catapult and lose a tank (133-5).

We dispose of an Australian inf blocking our route to Paris (134-5).

We take Paris, defended by five riflemen, and capture a catapult (139-5).
 
In the French lands we trample three riflemen, two longbowmen, and two Australian inf, also rounding up four French workers (146-5).

Off southern Spain we send a French convoy of three ironclads and a galleon to the bottom, drowning a rifleman and France’s only settler in the galleon (151-5).

A bit farther south we dispose of an Argentine ironclad (152-5).

We found five cities to fill in gaps in our new Western European lands—and with the fifth we hit ”Too many cities”, so we abandon Nineveh.

We sell Chita’s improvements for 37 gold and replace it with First Sight.

We incinerate an Australian tank impudently landed on Ibu Rea’s island (153-5).

Off northern Scotland we sink a French flotilla of two ironclads and a galleon carrying three longbowmen (159-5).

At Fishy in West Africa our flak units shoot down two Argentine bombers operating from a carrier (161-5). The Argentines hit the same city two turns in a row so we knew where to put the flak.

We win an impressive combat between battleships off the Spanish coast, the attacker being American (160-5).

The Argentines land six tanks next to Isipezi in southern Africa, so for once the AI fully loads a transport.

We settler-abandon Kwinana in eastern Siberia, to create leeway with the city limit now reached.


1545 (4): We found the tactical town of Toads Revisited, letting us cross the Pyrenees to attack France’s three remaining cities in Spain.

We storm Lyons, garrisoned by three riflemen and a longbowman, and capture a treb and a catapult (164-5).

We seize Avignon, held by three riflemen (167-5).

We Leader-fish against two French units, a rifleman and a longbowman, without success (169-5).

We capture Besançon, defended by four riflemen (171-5), and:
 
We capture a trebuchet. No French units come off the map—we destroyed them all. :evil:

We conclude the Hawaiian campaign by taking New San Francisco, defended only by an inf after the Australians’ earlier losses (172-5).
 
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