(0) 1250 - Looking around. Things look reasonably OK. We are pretty thin on defensive troops. And I'm not convinced rails at the front and protecting them is as valuable as getting our core improved, now that we have a military railnet up to our outlying cities.
(I) Very nice to see Japs and Egyptians fighting. They all lose troops. We don't lose any, although we have some close calls. Another landing on "Iron Works Island", but I think I can handle a lone infantry there with troops on hand.
(1) 1255 - Redline lots of enemy troops. Lose about a 1:1 ratio trying to take out rifles, infantry, and crusaders (all with 1 hp) with vet/elite cavalry.
(I) More Japanese/Egyptian casualties, but no French ones. That's good.
(2) 1260 - Maneveur.
(I) Fortified musketeer on mountain with cannon defensive bombard vs. attacking infantry? We lose, doing no damage. And more Egyptian ships approach IW Island. Egyptians also found Buto by our artillery stack, after waffling on its location for a couple turns.
(3) 1265 - "Only" takes 21 cannon shots to redline the single defender (infantry) of Buto. Raze Buto for 371 gold. Not bad pocket change, but it slows our advance in the south. Armies in the north are finally healed enough to move again.
(I) China/Byzantines ally vs. Egypt. Good news. Fortified musketeers on hills with defensive bombard go 1-2 vs. attacking infantry and one on flatlands wins without a scratch. Wild. And now 8 Egyptian ships are by IW island. WHEE!!!
(4) 1270 - At Asyut in the north, first cav army nearly redlines to take out an infantry and I decide to rest before going at it again. Better safe than stupid.
(I) More Japanese/Egyptian fighting. An insane number of infantry attack our artillery stack, taking out two of the three defending musketeers on a mountain. I think I killed 11 attackers, though. Artillery stack is in a slightly odd place to reinforce, though. Might get tricky. Only 3 infantry drop off on IW island, but I'm not sure how I'll take of them. We're short on troops there.
And Egypt captures Smolensk from the Japanese.
(5) 1275 - Asyut gets hit by the first army, which kills the first infantry, losing one hp, and then drops to very few hps to kill the second infantry. Cavalry up there attacks, wins, spawns a MGL, and then I have a heinous choice to make. Asyut is the home to Adam Smith's Trading Company. We were at one credit, plus Buto is two, and Asyut is three. I can keep it. It's got insane borders, but it's only size 3, and once we get some of our culture there, there wouldn't be any overlap. OTOH, it's been drafted at least once, as the last infantry was a conscript (which is why the elite attacked).
Dang. This is tough. What's Smith's worth to us? Free stuff in a lot of cities. We can probably make the flip chance zero or very close to it fairly easily. I think it has to be done. Wish I'd done my tech stuff earlier, but... Keep the city.
It comes complete with marketplace, courthouse, factory, and police station. Three resistors, of course. The army will guard it one turn and then the horde of suppressers will arrive. A check of F8 yields a 5:1 cultural advantage to Egypt, 44698 to 8197. And the Byzantines have pressure, too, until its border expands. Risky move, to be sure. I hope it pays off. Gpt up to 120, though.
IW island cannons stink up the place, so the infantry will get to pillage and maybe move on or attack, but an attack will never get a city.
Safe steal from China nets Replaceable Parts. But Replaceable Parts, Iron, Silks, Gems, and Dyes gets "I doubt they would accept this." It would take 60 gpt on top of all that to get Nationalism. How ridiculous is that??? I wonder if Germany has it partway researched. Next turn, I'll try to get Nationalism out of Japan with RP. They lack Electricity, so I *KNOW* they don't have RP.
SHEESH! I'm glad I kept Asyut. With all the jungle we cut down...our only source of Rubber is under Asyut. Boy, do I *REALLY* want to keep that now. Japan lacks Rubber, as do the meaningless Celts, but everybody else has a source. Asyut will be critical to our success now.
BTW, Egypt will pay 1300 gold for peace. I don't think it's worth it, but we might want to consider making a short peace with Egypt and shortening our front and building up a bit by taking out China. They're also pretty technically advanced and would make a fine target.
(I) Japan dies and dies and dies to Egypt, but finally kills a bit. We kill 3 infantry for the loss of a musketeer. A few infantry builds are started.
(6) 1280 - I gotta take out one infantry on flatlands without artillery support to free up some lines to the front. First 3 cav all die, promoting it to elite. No damage done. No retreating. Sigh. 4th one kills it without a scratch. All you gotta do is complain, I guess.
I stop our 198 gpt+Egypt embargo deal with China. He'd do the embargo for free, but he's already at war with Cleo and I want the opportunity to war with him if/when we decide we need/want to, so I just let it lapse.
I get Ironclads + 6 gpt + 18 gold + WM from Japan for Electricity. I want to see what RP is worth to him. Well, RP + dyes + silks + gems is insulting for Nationalism. What a joke.
On IW island, the two surviving infantry are redlined. First cav dies, second one wins, eventually. And they're on flatlands. Much glue this turn. On the plus side, we're up to 307 gpt right now. Actually....
I really want Nationalism. I want spies and I can still get value from RP out of Japan now. RP + iron + dyes + gems + 60 gpt to Germany for Nationalism and 12 gold. It hurts, but.... Oh, but...heck, Japan doesn't have Communism, Espionage, or anything useful for RP. Burnt again. At least we got value from our iron, but....
I should've trade with Japan first. Germany has things beyond Nationalism. Bother.
Re-MM cities to take advantage of new specialists. And I draft from a couple cities with full food boxes that can handle the happiness penalty (Paris, Rouen, Toulouse). These guys are earmarked as MP or flip preventers, but more troops are quite valuable right now, for whatever purpose. Darn road to Asyut is still semi-clogged, though.
(I)Japan/Celts make peace. So what? Japan continues to make glue. Cleo wants straight-up peace. I decline, of course. We get the Pentagon message. I'd like to build it, but I'm not sure where. Paris is on MA now, having built a Coal Plant, too. Asyut resistance ends. Temple will be rushed.
(7) 1285 - Raze Edfu in the north, between Strasbourg and Asyut. Another 331 gold. Used an army. Asyut gets its temple rushed.
(I) Germany/China ally vs. Celts. Germany drops a few cities that are really going to mess up our communication lines. I wonder if we could convince Egypt to raze them for us (by allying with Germany vs. Egypt).
What happened to 8? I dunno. I got off in years somewhere.
(9) 1295 - 13 hp cav army dies to 2 hp infantry in Smolensk. Ummm....well, that sucks. Now what?
Front is getting ugly. Egypt rolls a flak cannon into view. They will be bombing us from the sky soon. A couple more cities and then I think it might well be time to turn on China. Would cost 480 gold to get Germany to declare on Cleo. If we keep going at Cleo (might be wise since she's still the leader), I would definitely do this, just to let Egypt raze some annoying German cities for us.
(10) 1300 - Well, we're in a position to probably raze Smolensk and Hierancompolis next turn. Asyut's borders should expand and it'll become safer for our people to live there. It's already been starved to one Egyptian.
Current credit: 1 raze
Arathorn
