First thing I'd like to point out is that we're getting blown away on the espionage front.
AIs are using their slider to raise their EP output and we just can't compete with that. So we're losing vision over their research and even demographics.
We've spread our EPs for now, to get intel over several AIs, but we'll soon focus our whole output on Asoka. Reason being he's the only important target for a spy mission.
What's that mission ? We'll need to make him adopt Organized Religion instead of Free Religion to get back our +9 diplo from shared religion.
Second, we immediately bribe Gilgamesh on Frederick :
We're not ready to DoW, yet, but bribing Giggles in advance will let him move his troops in or towards German territory (he may need several turns, right ?). Therefore, he will attract Freddie's troops and that will make it that much easier for us to manoeuver without suffering from counter-attacks / fighting off heavy reinforcements.
We're giving Gilgamesh all of our techs in this deal but we're also getting trade baits.
(See, ShiVvV ? We're getting Military Science ! Enlightenment, that is ! And Divine Right on top.)
Indeed, those two techs we're getting aren't well spread at all.
Tech situation :
On the next turn, we get another nice trade, that unlocks Airships for us :
Thanks, buddy ! I'll make good use of it. And, you know what ? I'm getting to beeline Mass Media, so I sure appreciate your help ! Electricity can now be queued after Medicine.
With those two extra turns of set up, we get to 1140 AD. Frederick has Steel and Steam Power over us. He can now reasearch Assembly Line, Artillery, Railroads... All three are killer techs.
He also can research Divine Right, Military Science, Biology, Democracy, Electricity and Communism, which aren't nearly as bad (for us).
This is where it shows that invading Freddie then Mehmed is a possibility but the opposite doesn't stand true.
1040 AD, we DoW Freddie.
ShiVvV said:
Freddie has dropped from 16>11 cities and it appears you have captured Dusseldorf and Cologne. I'm assuming the Ottomans captured the other 3 German cities. Also you have units positioned along the German/Turkish border which I assume must be airships?
I'm interested in the mechanics of what actually happened the turn you declared. Specifically, did you go straight for Berlin (seems unlikely from that screenshot though) via Gilgamesh's lands? Or, did you start with Dusseldorf and work down the coast?
Since your naval drop off point was actually in German lands, did you move your troops out of German lands first before declaring, or--declared and they teleported to Gilga's lands (maybe?).
I'm sure a lot of these questions you are in process of answering as you catch up with your writeup.
a) Our units in German lands are automatically teleported to the nearest tile outside their borders. Therefore, we didn't need to move our troops before Dowing. Instead, we could use Summerian roads to invade where we saw fit.
b) The white dots you saw in Ottoman lands were only cities. We have only one Riflemen, used for scouting, that got teleported in Ottoman territory. The previous turns were used to call the army back west, so as to avoid getting our troops split up too badly.
c) Airships production has yet to be started (been a little slow on this front). However, Summerian cities will be used to rebase Airships, as well as our German captures.
d) Here's our spread on the turn of the DoW :
The aim with this war is to cut Freddie's head as swiftly as possible. And by his "head" I mean his production capabilities. We're targetting cities. I don't wanna fight a stack of doom and suffer war weariness. The objective is to prevent him from building up too many reinforcements.
So we target two cities at once.
Dusseldorf only has 4 defenders, so it's an easy pick.
Cologne has 7, though (2 rifles, 1 cav, 1 cannon, 2 maces, 1 longbow), so it will be a little tougher. For now, we've only unloaded a single Galleon (2 rifles, 1 treb) by Cologne.
On the bright side, neither of these cities has Walls, which makes bombarding very easy !
So Dusseldorf is captured on 1140 AD. Our leftover troops can head straight for Cologne.
The stack 2N2E of Cologne is made of 2 Rifles, 3 Trebs and a Macemen. They can threaten either Cologne or Berlin (going on hills). Those troops aren't really necessary for the capture of Cologne but chances are they can't do a thing against Berlin. Maybe they'll just remain in between the two cities and mess with Frederick's reinforcement route.
From this point, Galleons will stop using the "unload" point and stretch a little more, give us some reach so we can unload troops where we really need them.
Also, now that we've entered the war, we can give directions to our war allies.
Mehmed isn't given directions : he's in a two fronts war and out-teched by his enemies... He'll do well if he doesn't lose any more city.
Gilgamesh, on the other hand, is sent to an area we cannot reach easily and that has high production cities : the north-east.
I think I first asked him to go for Essen and then redirected him towards Stuttgart. You know, I don't really care if Gilgamesh captures any city. In fact, I'd rather have him fail. What we should care about is him keeping Frederick busy. So Essen is a fine target for now.
End of turn, we get Medicine. So Sushi will be founded on 1150 AD.
Also, Frederick bribes Churchill against Gilgamesh. That's fine.
So, 1150 AD, military-wise, we just push our troops 1 tile forward Cologne.
It appears we're losing island a city spot to both Asoka and Stalin :
We have four more settlers in transition, so we won't lose many more spots. Losing two is acceptable, especially if we can culture press those lost cities.
This is also the turn when Harkuf founds Sid's Sushi Co :
a) Since Memphis still needs so many hammers, we can't afford to cold whip execs (requires 5 population points). Memphis will produce 2 executives before switching back to infrastructure.
b) We'll spread Sushi from closest to farthest. This means our Egyptian lands will now be used to pump Execs. Giza is the first city we'll spread to.
c) We still lack some Banks before we can start on Wall Street. That's another reason why Giza is the first target for the spread : Elephantine and Thebes will whip their Bank on 1160 AD. So we'll be able to start on Wall Street from 1170 AD.
d) Spreading Sushi is now the stake, not the actual output from the corporation : we don't need to trade extensively (or even buy) Sushi resources. We'll do so when the Corp is sufficiently spread over the Empire.
By 1160 AD, our Galleons have focused on unloading troops. This means we have a lot of reinforcements waiting at our "load" point. We're loading advanced troops and siege in priority :
Back in German lands, the city defences of Cologne have been taken down. We're getting ready to assault the city next turn :
Those screens show how Freddie is the most convenient overseas target for logistic purposes.
We've captured Dusseldorf and don't really need to defend it. Once we get Cologne, same : some minimal garrison will be enough. We can't get surrounded.
The troops in Summerian territory are going to join up with the stack by Berlin, on the hills. There is one extra maceman in each of these stacks. Berlin will be the next major target. This city, however, we'll have to defend. Indeed, we aim to invade by the coast, mostly. Delving inland from Berlin would be slow and, maybe, dangerous.
Sidenote : there is no road on the "unload" point, so, from now on, we'll avoid it and favour tiles that are roaded.
So, on 1170 AD, we get a fun AP vote to stop the war against Mehmed (involves Frederick and Mansa). We vote "No" but the "Yes" wins it. Gilgamesh and Mehmed weight the most in the matter.
We sacrifice 3 Trebuchets to soften Cologne. The city is ready to fall :
We get an astounding number of buildings in the capture : Granary, Aqueduct, Lighthouse, Harbour, Customs House, Forge, Observatory, Sacrificial Altar...
Do we really want to liberate this city after we've vassaled Frederick ? Hmm... It also controls a corn, 2 towns, 3 villages, hmm...
This is also a turn where we unload 3 settlers in the islands cluster :
With those 3 cities, given culture, we'll be able to control all of the seafood there is in this area.
Regarding Sushi, Memphis is starting on its 2nd executive and Giza on its first one.
Finally, this is the turn when we start training Airships (see ? I told you I would be late) :
Thebes and Elephantine are on hold, having nice overflow and waiting for Sushi to spread Execs.
We have 2 more settlers in the queues.
Some ships are being built. We're only getting minimal Cavalry reinforcements.
One of those settlers will complete the English block, down south. It will also get us 2 incense resources in the process :
By 1180 AD, we're now aiming for Berlin with the troops we've already unloaded (about 30).
Meanwhile, our reinforcements are coming from Galleons (15, plus 3 being late) and will target Hamburg.
2 frigates protect our 9 troops stack of galleons. So, again, we're targetting 2 cities simultaneously. This time, we'll have Airship support.
Berlin and Hamburg are wonderful cities. Berlin has the Taj Mahal, the University of Sankore and the Shwedagon Paya. Hamburg is the host to the Great Lighthouse, Colossus, Hagia Sophia and Apostolic Palace.
On 1190 AD, Frederick reinforces Berlin drastically, therefore we consolidate our stack :
We also hide our Galleons + Frigates in Cologne, to evade Airship strikes and counter-attacks from German Frigates. Freddie's navy is more numerous than ours, so we need to be careful, there. This is where the circumnavigation bonus we got earlier comes in very handy, allowing us to out-range his Frigates.
This is the reason why Frederick has much of a stronger navy than ours :
Half of his Empire is offshore. This was also one of the reasons why we targeted him first : offshore cities = less reinforcements inland.
We're putting some beakers into Steam Power because we have a trade opportunity with Churchill.
Levees will be nice. We have plenty of riverside cities in the north of the Empire. In Egyptian lands, not so much.
We're also sending a settler claim the last seafood resource we can reasonably get :
With all of this, we're getting at the gates of Berlin on 1200 AD.
On the same turn, we can unload 15 troops right by Hamburg. We now have 5 airships in position and are training another one. 8 Airships would be best but I couldn't decide where to get those.
1210 AD,
Thunder rolls in the distance, a dark mass of clouds plunges over the earth, earth breaks and cavities open in shrieks of suffering, lightning strikes unexpecting souls, until... light blinds all.
It was a black blind light coming before us.
And I heard as it were the noise of thunder
One of the four beasts saying come and see and I saw
And behold a white horse
.
. Disclaimer: I had doubts about my own ability to pull off an intercontinental galleon/frigate/rifle/mace/treb war...not yours! I was just excited to see it elegantly executed!
into 
buildings.
use, which is something that :
