(0) 1475 - No time like the present. Do an immediate steal from the Ottomans -- it's much cheaper and we really don't care if they declare on us at this point. It succeeds and we are now the proud owners of Flight. Nobody has much of anything to offer for Flight. I would kinda liked to get Communism for Police Stations (both for corruption and happiness help while in Republic), but it's not woth all our gold or ~90 gpt, so I don't. I hope to get it for an alliance in a few turns (when it will be too late) anyway.
I think about allying vs. the Ottomans now, but we have a number of undefended ships in the area that would pay the penalty, so I don't do that now.
Go through and micromanage cities, changing some production orders to get us bombers and a few airports for fighter defenders.
Entertainers are generally made into engineers. If the entertainer made WLTKD, they were kept...otherwise they were changed to engineers to help buildings complete in reasonable time. All buildings that I think might be wanted are ordered now. Realize it was silly to MM now, because I'm going to mobilize, so I'll need to MM again after that. Essentially all build orders changed to buildings, so I can have them where I want them after mobilization.
MOBILIZE!
Re-MM. Well, I want to, but it doesn't seem mobilization affected anything at all. No change in shields is really detectable. Is mobilization broken in C3C??? Something is screwy anyway. I can't seem to get extra shields for units in any city. Hmmm.... Well, that really blows.
Find the leader and turn him into an army -- fill it with 3 infantry (shuffling rifles where necessary). Blow a ton of gold (750) upgrading trebuchets into artillery. It was either that or disband them and we really need the firepower more than the cash at this point. Nearly our last 330 gold goes into upgrading rifles into infantry.
We're nearing readiness. I want a few settlers. We have one, but he's clear over west of Russia, for reasons unknown. Good thing I didn't jump the gun vs. Osman. In 4 turns, when our trades to him are complete, though, we might go to war. By that time, though, I can have the settler safe. That'll give me a bit of time to try to find another spot to build them from. Haarlem will be the spot, once it finishes its marketplace. Might have to get creative with engineers, too.
Having spent essentially all our gold, I finally press enter.
(I) Takes forever but little of note happens. I do figure out what the deal with mobilization is, though. Apparently, bombers and fighters aren't military units, so they don't get the shield bonus?!? How wrong is that? Hmmm...what to do.
(1) 1480 - Catch a glimpse of Ottoman troops -- they're using tanks, not modern armor, which is a very encouraging sign. Move a lot of troops towards the Ottomans.
Oh, interesting. All cities that were on non-military builds are now building Flak cannons. Apparently, you can no longer "trick" a city into building ANYTHING non-military while mobilized. Good to keep in mind. Means a bunch more MMing for me this turn, but that's OK.
All bomber builds sent to submarine. Anybody that will complete a submarine in one turn will be switched back to bombers. Tedious and unnecessary, but it's the way to actually get some benefit out of our mobilization.
(I) Ottomans finish off the Russians. Bummer. But they're still at war with a couple other civs, so their military might will hopefully move in that direction (like against the Aztecs).
We catch an agent of Spain (Isobella) trying to sabotage production in Utrecht. That's kinda odd. Not like we're gonna retaliate, though.
Arnhem, even with the bizarre mobilization rules, can do a fighter/turn, which will be helpful for air superiority, so he's put on that mission now.
(2) 1485 - Not much to do but clean up pollution and wait for a few more bombers to come online.
(I) Still trying to figure out how mobilization works. It might be your first project STARTED after you're mobilized that gets the bonus? It's weird.
(3) 1490 - Test and see that we can effectively take all of old Russia to Moscow without needing to rebase bombers from Leerdam. With the Ottomans have 150K+ gold, we should get a bunch from them every time we raze a city. Just gotta keep the bombers flowing and get 50 infantry ready to ship across (we're getting close to that mark).
Our ivory and incense imports will expire next turn. Try to renogiate the non-Ottoman ones.
(I) Portugal and Spain make peace.
(4) 1495 - Continue positioning for attack.
Cancel ivory deal with Ottomans. Re-purchase incense for Flight (also get 130 gold). I don't care if the Mongols have some techs, as long as it saves me 40 gpt, I'm happy. But there's no source on the planet for another luxury. Sigh.
I end up raising lux tax to 10%, because there's no other way to keep our major cities happy. Even so, I have to re-MM a lot of cities. Income down to 591 gpt. Not ideal but the best I can do under the circumstances.
(I) Mongols declare on Aztecs.
(5) 1500 - Send Wines to Aztecs for Gems and an alliance against the Ottomans. Land troops by Krasnoyorsk and bomb it empty (MI and TI defending). Can't take it this turn -- can't attack from boats (I wonder if I could've used the army???). Cross fingers in fear of the inter-turn.
(I) Ottomans declare war on the Spanish. They bomb Leerdam once, injuring some boats. And that's it????
Aztecs come wanting to cancel Horses for 36 gpt deal. They have no gpt, but they give WM and 626 gold for horses, which is just as good, almost.
We catch a spy plant attempt from Montezuma of the Aztecs. No worries there.
(6) 1505 - Only one MI defends Krasno now. Two artillery hit...bomber flies and...
Yakutsk is scarier -- defended by two TIs...and a modern armor. Sigh. That'll make progress a bit slower. Bombers actually kill no one. I attacked before we were prepared. We'll have more bombers next turn. One city/turn is going to be the best we can hope for for a while.
I do use some of our gold to plant a spy in Istanbul against the Ottomans.
19 workers, 13 rifles, 1 infantry, 3 tanks, 70 MI, 19 MA, 17 artillery, 2 cruise missiles, 4 ICBM, 1 transport, 14 destroyers, 3 fighters, 3 bombers, 7 jet fighters, 67 TOW infantry, 1 mobile SAM. That's actually much smaller than I would've guessed, but it doesn't include captured units, which looks to be another dozen or so artillery.
We carefully steal Mobilized Transportation from the Ottomans, but tanks are almost valueless, so I start production on precisely zero of them. Radio for towers might be nice, and if we can get modern and MI, that would be extremely handy. That's used up our ill-gotten gains, though, so I stop for now.
(I) Lose 2 infantry to MA. Bummer. I wish they'd concentrate on the Aztecs in the south. Oh well.
(7) 1510 - We have more gold from the interturn, so we carefully steal Radio. We're now in the modern age. Aztecs and Hittites are only up Rocketry in the Modern Age, so our next steal might turn into a 2fer. Spain is up all visible techs. Mongols and Portugeuse are behind us. Ottomans are unknown.
Hilversum founded on the Ottoman continent. It will be a target of many attacks, I'm sure. Walls rushed via worker.
Kill 2 MAs, a jet fighter, one one tow infantry in Yakutsk. Final TOW has 1 hp left and I can't kill him this turn. More bombers are on the way, however.
(I) No counters from Ottomans. Swap WMs with Aztecs. The Ottomans are hitting them hard on the Ottoman continent. Once the Aztecs are driven off that soil, we're gonna start seeing a lot more units.
(8) 1515 - Bomb the final TOW out of Yakutsk. I'm gonna have to lose a unit to raze it. Horseman gains 1785 gold razing Yakutsk. He'll be lost, for certain, but he's easily replaceable. A second infantry army would be incredibly handy now -- one to cover attackers and one for the city to limit attacks on us. Only one MI in Orenburg, and it's now gone. Do I send a cavalry to its death? Darn right I do. We'll get enough cash to rush a replacement next turn. On second thought, we're doing OK on fighters. I change Arnhem over to cavalry production -- their speed makes them a great complement to bombers. And we get another 1818 gold in our coffers. Steal coming up.
That gold we just took from their cities turns into a careful steal. And we now have Computers. Computers gets Communism, WM, 4765 gold (all they had), and Amphibious War (marines are often useful in conjunction with bombers as well). Computers and 5000 gold isn't enough to get Rocketry from Hitties, so maybe another steal is in order. Anybody know if a 2nd steal in one turn is more or less likely to succeed?
Another careful Steal from the Ottomans gets us ... Hmm... Ecology, I guess. Computers + Ecology gets us Fascism, Rocketry, WM, and all 23 gold from the Hittites. We're making some serious progress through the Modern Age here. And we have enough for another steal. Do I dare?
Well, not immediately. Spain is up all visible except Synthetic Fibers. We do have aluminum, one source by Harlingen near our core. I'd like to upgrade some fighters to jet fighters, but I'll need to cycle them in and out.
Yekaterinburg resists initial bombings. It's defended by at least an MI and a TOW.
Well, I do try a third time, still carefully, but our spy is caught. I do get him replanted, however.
(I) Mongols and Ottomans come to peace. I don't like that at all. Ottomans don't even kill our exposed horse units. But SOMEBODY sabotages production in Maastricht. Oh well.
(9) 1520 - Jet fighters are starting to appear in lots of Ottoman cities. We catch one on the ground and then lose a bomber to one. Take out MI and TOW in Yekat, but I can't reach it for a couple of turns. Lose a couple more bombers to jet fighters, operating out of St. Pete. We'll need to bomb in force to get rid of them. I'll try to accomplish that next turn.
No gold for a steal this turn. No good diplo stuff at all. Ottomans still not talking (not that peace at the current time is good for us, anyway).
(I) Ottoman counter is once again non-existent. The silence is starting to scare me a bit.
(10) 1525 - Rushed marine razes Yekat for 1815 gold. He'll be exposed, but the Ottomans haven't been attacking much. I'd hoped to catch a plane or two in the city, but I should've known better. They would have been visible (and first to die to my bombers earlier). Time for the St. Pete battle royale....
I send in the fighters first, to try to draw enemy fire on less important targets...but all of them bomb without being intercepted and without hitting anything.
Bombers time.... First two kill of a jet fighter. Third and fourth reveal one MI and one TOW in the city. We should hopefully have enough to finish both of those off. Shoot! We're missing a lot and they had a conscript MI, too. It's gonna be close boys and girls. Both MI fall and then I start hitting buildings -- courthouse, factory, stock exchange, marketplace...come on, one hp on a TOW -- you can do it!!! But I can't... Everybody else misses. My only unit in the area is one horsemen, who could take the empty city with no problem, but do I attack a TOW with an ancient era unit??? You bet your sweet bippy I do!!! And he wins with one hp left, capturing an artillery and destroying an ICBM!!! 1850 gold ain't shabby neither.
There are lots of Hittites appearing in our way. Do we sign them in against Ottomans? Up to the next leader. I think I would, but this is a team game!
I spend a fair chunk of change upgrading our infantry in Ottoman lands to mech infantry. I also have noticed a couple of extra aluminum in our lands and not hooked up, so I'm working on getting those up and going. I even upgrade one longbow to TOW infantry, mostly to see what the team's impression of it is.
Another careful steal attempt against the Ottomans is attempted. No luck with getting Synth Fibers, which we could use to get a bunch of cash from Spain. Our spy isn't captured, though. Not enough to try again this turn.
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/lotr10-1525ad.zip
I'll have more to say about strategy tomorrow. It's bedtime now.
Arathorn
Arathorn did make a list of the troops we will need for our attack a few posts above mine.
you. And everyone knows you're not a crappy player.
