(0) Inherited Turn:
I check out Military Advisor and note that we have five galleons, two frigates and three caravals. That should get a substantial force over to France, so my first priority is to get them in position to ferry troops across. There's already a good number of ships in Grand River, but why is there a fully loaded galleon sitting duck in French territory to the East?
I go through our cities, adding taxmen to corrupt size six plus cities.
Science-wise, the Arabs are running away with the game, and are the only ones that we could steal tech from. They will not sell us either Medicine or Electricity. I could
it out of Russia, but with their envoy refusing to see us, I can't tell what techs they have. We have 2518 gold in the treasury, but it costs over 2,700 to carefully steal a tech from the Arabs. I will wait a turn.
IBT:
A Persian caraval attacks our "sitting duck" Galleon, and is sunk, while redlining our ship.
Viallach gains a marketplace, and I switch it's tiles to maximum growth. I'll switch it to Galleon, although everything will take forever to build there.
Arabia starts Theory of Evolution.
(1) 1370AD
Kitzbuehel founded.
ChrTh has done a great job of organizing the wokers into railroading groups, and I can get nearly all the area around Vienna railroaded this turn.
We have 2,900 gold in the bank, so I try a careful tech steal from Arabia. And we succeed! We now have the secrets of Electricity. Two more techs and I can switch to TOE. These guys also have Replacable Parts. Russia will also talk, and are also up to Replacable Parts. They are willing to accept peace, but we have an ongoing alliance with the Viking for another 14 turns.
IBT:
Persia and Scadinavia sign a peace treaty. A Persian galley passes our galleon, but doesn't attack.
(2) 1375AD
A positioning turn. Three more galleons will arrive at Grand River in the next couple of turns, and then the attack on France can begin in earnest.
IBT:
France begins Universal Suffrage. Don't they realize they're meant to be at war?
Persia comes grovelling for peace.
And Persia briefly gets a second city as Samaria decides that they want to be Persian. Bunch-o-losers. Glad I didn't sign the peace treaty.
(3) 1380AD
I Activate one of our armies and take back Samaria from the stinking Persians.
Another three galleons are loaded with troops. We have eight ships loaded now, hopefully this will be enough to get a beachead.
IBT:
Nothing.
(4) 1385AD
Our frigate can't even sink a Persian galley.
Sail across the channel and unload a bunch of troops next to Grenoble. Four additional musketmen are following to secure the city.
IBT:
Russia completes Universal Suffrage. TOE may be a problem.
The French have a LOT of troops, and we lose two muskets. I count at least 40 troops, arranged in three SODs.
(5) 1390AD
Even if I can take Grenoble there is no way I can guard against the counterattacks. So I load the troops back onto the ships and wait for reinforcements. I switch the five coastal cities nearest to Grand River to galleon, and rush 'em. There's already a bunch of troops present that I can load into them.
IBT:
France lands a bunch of troops next to Goiguoen. I doubt if the city will hold, but hopefully we'll take out a few of their troops and leave the remainder stranded (the AI is very bad about picking up it's troops).
Arabia demands dyes. I cave, as I'd rather keep them off my back with so many shiploads of troops floating around.
(6) 1395AD
Load lotsa troops onto boats, ready for a second attempt.
The French have two cavalry, one knight, four MDI and one musketeer next to Goiguoen. We have a 2/5 elite hussar and two musketmen inside the walled city.
IBT:
We take down a cavalry and three MDI before the Goiguoen is captured.
One of our supplies of coal is exausted, but a new one appears next to Eisenstadt.
(7) 1400AD
More movement of troops and ships. We're back at 2,900 gold again so it's time for another tech steal from Arabia. And again I succeed, and we have Medicine.
IBT:
Nada.
(8) 1405AD
More movement.
IBT:
Riots break out everywhere. Ugh. I realize that we lost a luxury at Goiguen. Too many cities to check. I catch a lot of them via scroll-forward.
(9) 1410AD
Umm no. We didn't lose a luxury at Goiguoen. Did a deal end or something?
I give Medicine to Ragnor in exchange for furs.
13 shiploads of troops move next to Grenoble. And would you believe there's a worker on the hill where I wanted to offload our troops? I stumble on a bug where I attempted to capture the French worker with a hussar. Of course he couldn't move, but I then hit fortify (to fortify him on the ship), and to my surprise, he galloped out of the ship and captured the worker! Another 44 troops (plus a settler) are offloaded onto the same hill.
IBT:
All hell breaks lose. What must be the entire French army attacks our landing party. In the midst of it all, the Great Leader Frederick appears. I watch for what seems like forever as Frenchman after Frenchman attacks our stack. At the end of it all, our Great Leader survives.
(10) 1415AD
We do have a bunch of cannon, but if I fire them on Grenoble, it will leave them exposed to capture. I count six uninjured hussars. After a few attempts to take the city I give up and move the remaining troops back to the boats.
It looks like we need to get infantry before we can establish a beachead. I've got us moving in that direction with successful steals of Electricity and Medicine. If we can get Scientific Method before TOE is built we have a good chance of getting it.
Still no French beachead...
EDIT: Taking a second look at the "bug", it looks like amphibious attacks on workers are possible. I'm not sure if this is intended though.
... a Longbowman finishes off the job.
Possibly we should just buy the next two techs from the Arabs for cash, unpleasant though it would be to enrich them. The hoard of 2518 gold we've got right now gets us to "doubt" with the Arabs.
